Group Captain R_. C_., RCAFVR, OBE, DSO, DFC (Bar),
RAAF Richmond,
NSW,
Australia
Dear Father:
RAAF Richmond,
NSW,
Australia
Dear Father:
"GRACE."
Time,
16 July 1945
Correspondence
Our publisher writes that when the
paper started, it had “the Bible, Xenophon’s Anabasis, and the Iliad
on its desk.” All the syntax backwards came with the need for telestyle to
space save. There is no”Time style,”
people are rejected if they try to write for the paper using it, and all the
parodies are wrong and stupid, although the paper will admit that it uses
“tycoon.” Which is a Chinese word. Not that the paper is implying anything.
Anyway, Columbia University says that Time
has the “most interesting” style around. So there. Listen to the paper.
 |
| This has been your weekly reminder that Eric W. Johnson is the Coming Thing. |
Mrs. Paul Koesten, of Glendale,
California, isn’t nearly so self-congratulatory, and thinks America shouldn’t
be, either. This patriotism thing is overdone, she thinks. Robert Braun, of
Holliston, Massachusetts, thinks that universal military training is a ploy by
generals to “drum up business.” Mrs. L. V. Honsinger speaks up for unfairly
maligned “brass hats.” SP (X) 2/C Suzanne Maurer, USNR (W.R.), writes that
Ernest Hooton’s* views on women are awful, and that he is “probably the only man
in the world to deplore those ‘peculiarly localised fatty deposits” which seem
to improve the morale of our fighting men by their presence in pin-up
pictures.” Way to stand up for womankind, Specialist Maurer. Speaking
of, the story about the (female) shape inspires Sgt. Jay G. Bundenthal of New
York to write in to explain tell us about the shapes of European girls. Germans
are the “bounciest,” and American girls should take note.
Mark Deller writes
that the reason that shipyard workers “quit in droves” is that the newspapers
are scaring them about their future. Actually, shipyard workers like Mr. Deller
and his family (his daughters work summers, go to college in the winters) are
swell. Philip Rubinstien of Roxbury, Mass, writes that girls today prefer
wrinkled, distinguished looking men like the ones on the cover of the paper. I assume that Mr. Rubinstien is wrinkly.
U.S.
At War
“Power vs. Statesmanship” Okinawa
was a tough battle, but also saw the largest scale Japanese surrenders yet. The
Japanese might yet surrender without an invasion if they can be persuaded that
“unconditional surrender” does not mean “the extermination or enslavement of
the Japanese people.” A further statement of aims, beyond “Kill Japs,” is
called for. (It's interesting that a bit later, the paper mentions that "religious freedom" is among the things guaranteed.)
“On His Way” The President is on his
way to Potsdam, we now know, thanks to the lifting on “the preposterous
blackout on news of the President’s movements. . .”The President is not senior
enough to preside over the talks, but he does carry invitations to Stalin to join
the Combined Coal, Production and Resources, and Food Boards, and the papers
for the $6 billion loan to give him leverage. On the domestic side, the
departures of Harry Hopkins and Henry Morgenthau is another marker of the
changeover from Rooseveltians to Trumanians (I’m helping the paper with my own
coining, there, no parody intended, so help me). The GOP might talk about
beating “the New Deal” in 1946, but by that time there will be no New Dealers
left.
The U.S. has also recognised the
Polish government and appointed Arthur Bliss Lane as ambassador. Francis
Byrnes, the new Secretary of State, will be glad to see his man, Ben Cohen, go
in as legal advisor, and Will Clayton (“at whose appointment left-wingers had
raised a wail of anguish”) come in as assistant. Harold Stassen gave a radio
talk about the United Nations Charter, then returned to the Admiral’s staff.
Although food production is up 35% over five years, the farm population is down
to 25,100,000, the lowest in 35 years. The week also saw final settlement for
the Army’s seizure of Sioux horses in 1876, with a payment of $101,630; small
change after the quarter-million dollar payment of 1891, but it gives the paper
a chance to make fun of Indian names. Two more businessmen have come out to say
that they lent Elliot Roosevelt money and were never repaid: David M. Baird, an
insurance man, and Maxwell Bilofsky, Newark manufacturer, member of the
National Republican Club pf New York, and owner of a $30,000 aluminum
Rolls-Royce.
Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court’s “dissenter-in-chief, having
reached the bench’s retirement age of 70, is leaving. Various persons I’ve
never heard of, not surprisingly, are mooted as replacements.
“What They Bought” Delegates to the
San Francisco Conference bought neckties, filmy nightgowns, Mexican silver
plates, rayon hosiery, Hombergs and white shirts. The paper is a-goggle.
“Home Sweet Home” GIs rolling across
America “from Boston to California” on their way from Europe to Japan took 5
days and 6 nights. It was very uncomfortable, as the Army was only allocated
4.055 sleeping cars. 895 will be reallocated, leaving civilians with a
“rock-bottom” 3000. Another 1200 troop sleepers will be built by the end of the
year, Since the American rails will need to do 21 million man moves, or 3 moves
each for 7 million men, no-one is going to be comfortable on the rails for the
next few months.
“Fire Season” It’s the ‘fire season’
of strikes! And “After three years of hard war use, the machinery of the War
Labour Board is sadly worn.” Akron is paralysed by strikes at Goodyear and
Firestone, and tyre and self-sealing fuel tank production collapsed last week
until the Navy took over the Goodyear plant; but Firestone is still out. Other
strikes are going on elsewhere, but the paper can’t say very much about them,
because the metaphor factories are critically short of manpower.
“The Wreckers” Manila Bay was
crammed with Japanese wrecks, but Commodore Sullivan and his men were on the
job, along with Commodore Byron S. Huie. Apparently they have some prior
experience in a place called “England,” and during the "Battle of Normandy," if
you’ve ever heard of it. Speaking of all-American everythings, Carl Spaatz will
take over command of the air war against Japan once 8th Air Force is
there.
“The Bad with the Good” Since the
war began, 101 US Army men have been executed, 47 for murder, 43 for rape, 11
for rape and murder, 1 for desertion. No Navy Department men were executed. In
other military news, there was talk about talking about postwar universal
military training.
World
Battlefronts
For the first time in 13 months, US
Army ground forces are not in major action anywhere in the world. General
Stillwell says that 10th Army will be home before next Independence
Day, Admiral Kinkaid calls for continuing the pressure on Japan. Admirals want
to invade as soon as possible, while air men want to bomb some more. The B-29s,
however, are running out of “industrial” targets and will be moving on to
railroad, hydroelectric and port targets.
General MacArthur, meanwhile, has
declared the Philippines campaign “effectively over.” 11,921 Americans were
killed in 6th Army, in Luzon, and 8th Army, in the south.
The Australians capture north Borneo more.
 |
| "I'm confused. When did the Spanish come back?" |
“How Effective is 2%?” The U.S. Navy
“admitted” last week that six more U.S. ships have been hit off Okinawa,
including 5 destroyers, with 464 casualties. Twigg, just told that it was going home, had all its officers
killed, the paper tells us. Pharmacist’s Mate Joseph Deworocki took command.Twigg and Porter were sunk, 3 others badly damaged, and one Liberty ship was
also hit. The Admiral made fun of the Japanese as a “sixth rate air force,” and
Marc claims that the kamikazes are not a problem, as they are “only 2%
effective.” Other reports passing the censor are far less optimistic.
Speaking of Navy missteps, Iwo Jima
has now received 1,400 diversionary B-29s, so perhaps it was not a complete
waste of lives.
Bob Herwig, husband of Kathleen
Winsor, author of Forever Amber, is a
University of California All-Americand, a 6th Marine Division
officer, and a hero for saving some men from a burning plane.
 |
| Jessica Tandy, but not from Forever Amber. |
International
Nicaragua just became the first
nation to ratify the United Nations Charter. The paper talks about the talking
about talking at Potsdam. The Paper’s London Bureau chief, Walter Graebner,
reports that everyone in Europe thinks that some American troops should stay in
Europe in case more war breaks out, with Yugoslavia particularly excitable, but
also Greece, where rightists instead of leftists are in the ascendant and using
the same apparatus of arrests, murders and imprisonments. In Greece there is
deflation due to a devaluation of the drachma and rising wages, but the real
bulwark against inflation is the expectation that the UNRRA won’t allow it.
Italy is short of everything, and the British are suspected of pushing a
restoration of the House of Savoy, probably unfairly. Most of Europe just wants
to be more like America and Britain.
Graebner thinks that Europe is having some kind of revolution, what I just
wrote, summarising him, notwithstanding, and that the Americans and British
should just “hold the line at the Elbe” and let the Russians get awful with the
bits that are already awful enough.
“The Savage Hun” Lord Vansittart
thinks that Germans are awful and must be kept disarmed forever. In news from
prison camps in Germany, it is apparent that Germans have never been Nazis.
Okay, the Germans admit, that’s a lie. But they do have a point, which is that
they love Americans. They tell the
paper.
“Boos and Ballots” The paper notes
that while the best guess when polls closed was a small majority for the
Conservatives, with a 100 seat gain for Labour. The Prime Minister was
relentlessly heckled at his third-to-final campaign function, had a firecracker
thrown in is face at the second-to-last, and predicted a Conservative victory
at the end, in a radio broadcast in which he said, parsing his words, that a
vote for Labour is a vote for Communism. Sounds like a Conservative majority
to me! (Polls notwithstanding, because what does science know?)
In other
English news, the Isle of Man is quaint, and the Duke of Windsor is coming over
to cadge some money from the relations. I wonder.He can't very well pretend to go Nazi again. Will he suggest that he's seeing sense in Marx, cough cough, cross the palm with silver? In German news, Berlin is a “city of
death.” American and British troops have taklen over their slices of the
“Berlin pie” from the Russians. Berliners are either pleased or apathetic about
it as much as anything else. The Russians keep making enemies by appointing
German communists to official positions. In Poland, recognition of the Polish government
means that the exile government in London has to find new employment. In Italy,
southerners are excitable. In China, T. V. Soong has arrived in Moscow in a
“four-motored plane.” Various things were discussed, from Darien to Sinkiang to
French Indo-China. The Premier of Mongolia showed up on the fifth day of the
talk, for reasons unknown to the paper. There is trouble between Greece and
Yugoslavia, which I’m going to allow more dignity than an “excitable” comment
because “terror is sweeping Macedonia,” and that sounds ugly. In China, Chiang
gave a speech to the National Assembly in Chungking, preparing everyone for a
civil war that is all the Communist’s fault. W. H. Donald recommends that the
Communists should give up their arms on a promise from Chiang not to harm them.
Really, man. Father must have put a fright in the old monster to run him off to New York, but I am almost tempted to write Uncle George for some introductions. I am sure that for the right considerations we could reach the man, even in New York. No, I am just talking idly. I've no desire to give up those considerations, he is an old man, and Father says that he is in bad health, and that we can leave vengeance to his Maker.
The paper then goes on to tell a colourful story about the government’s decision
to shift traffic to the right side of the road.
“The Empire, long united, must
divide; long divided, it must unite. Thus it has ever been.”
In India, talking about talking about
talking, now at Simla. This is why Field Marshal Wavell, the Viceroy, is on
this week’s cover. Wavell is the product of three generals in three generations
of his family, was twelfth of his line to attend Winchester, attended Sandhurst
vice Woolwich, joined his father’s regiment, commanded the suppression of the
Palestine revolt before the war, got thoroughly beat by Rommel, and is best known
for publishing an anthology of poetry. Sounds like just the man to put
in charge of the fate of India! Once India is a proper Dominion, under
Imperial Preference, he intends to write a biography of a Roman general named
Belisarius. In other colonial news, Canadian troops rioted at Aldershot this
week over rumours that Canadians had been incarcerated there, and also at the
fact that they were in Aldershot, as opposed to, say, Canada. Ottawa promised
to look into that.
In Latin America, much excitement,
but hopefully no terror.
People
Princess Elizabeth drew attention in
England for her hat, Imogene Stevens of Texas for being "tiger eyed." And for shooting a man dead in cold blood. But it was in Texas, so it practically counts as hospitality.
Norah Carpenter, mother of quadruplets by American
Sergeant William Thompson, is waiting for him to send for her, while he
negotiates a divorce from his wife through the Philadelphia press. Men. Louise Bogan replaces Robert Penn
Warren as official poet at the Library of Congress. General MacArthur was not
assassinated by Japanese agents this week. Mary Astor Paul turns out to have
been working for the French underground as “Pauline.” Colonel Norman H.Schwarzkopf, best known for heading the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case, is back
from three years of reorganising the Iranian police. James Petrillo is still
fighting for union rates for the Interlochen Lakes National Music Camp, and the
paper is still appalled. Joseph Schillinger’s “Rythmicon” got a test by the
Juilliard School of Music, along with his entire “scientific” method for engineering music.
Mickey Rooney has had a baby –well,
his wife has, but she’s less famous. Famous satirist John Erskine has married
again, three days after his Reno divorce. (Men!) Sergeant Simon Eden, eldest
son of Anthony Eden, is missing in action after an operational flight in Burma.
Sergeant? John Curtin, Harold Norman Denny, and Dr. Theodore Leslie Shear have
died.
Business
The paper celebrates the ending of
talking about talking about civil aviation. Now it is up to the airlines to
actually fly all the services they keep talking about, at the fares they have
promised. $100—150 to fly to London on a Constellation as soon as there is one.
It also does its version of its sister paper’s Philippines report. No word on
Philippinos being secretly
anti-independence, but it does talk about inflation. (Too much money chasing
too few goods, etc. How about money with uncertain value chasing too few goods?
It’s not like its Yankee dollars that are being thrust around in wads. That
might actually lead to business! I suppose that since there is a shortage of
ships, this is inevitable, but it still strikes me that enough money that is
likely to hold its value will bring goods to market from somewhere.) Instead, the Foreign Economic Administration is going
to send some ships full of the goods it thinks Philippinos ought to like soon.
The National City Bank says that so far the transition to peace has gone much
better than expected.
“Budd Burgeons” The Budd railcar factory
in Philadelphia is recapitalising and expanding, although people fear that he
is being too ambitious.
“How Much is Enough” Federated
Department Stores has caused controversy by proposing to pay 14 top executives
very generous incentive packages which seem excessive to stockholders when the
president of one subsidiary is already making $100,000 a year. Macy’s has
bought O’Connor, Moffatt! Enough said here. Several stories about returning GIs
going into business for themselves illustrate a story whose burden is that they
are less than expected numbers.
WPBoss Krugg is pleased to report
that even though America spent $61 billion on munitions in 1944, production of
civilian goods also hit the highest levels since 1941.
Science,
Medicine, Technology, Education, Etc
Birmingham, Alabama, has launched a
mass campaign to eradicate intimate diseases with penicillin. The paper is more
vulgar. Louis Doyle is doing well, in spite of having the top of his head
sliced off by an aircraft propeller, and inventor Dr. Marvel Darlington Beem
has developed a “bathroom bed” for hospitals which will turn nursing from “a
charwoman’s task into a profession.” It costs $30,000. Charwomen are not
expensive, but they are dear, right now.
“Crooked Shooter” The Germans seem
to be more imaginative than given credit for, as a recent display of German
secret weapons included an around-the-corner shooting rifle. Dr. John Grebe of
Dow Chemicals is not giving the Germans much of a lead, though, as he
introduces his “3500lb unit which will cook, wash the dishes, wash, dry and
iron clothes, freeze food and provide all bathroom facilities.” Ick! It is a
U-shaped room, 7ft by 12, and is intended to be inserted in existing houses, or
added on with its own roof. Made of magnesium and glass, it just needs to have
its water . . . pipes hooked up to be ready to go.
“The Reluctant Bee” Apiarist William
Feedham, reporting from the Squamish Valley near Vancouver, reports that the
local bees, hybrid descendants of Italian imports, refuse to sting, and that
this important discovery will transform beekeeping.
“War Babies” In spite of the war,
the world’s birth rate for the past four years has been higher than usual. The Lancet can’t understand why, but
suggests that the war might have caused “an unexpectedly high level of mental
stability,” or a shortage of contraceptives, or led an insecure world to raise
children as a “shock absorber.” All much better explanations than higher wages,
because then you would have an argument for paying the help more. . .
The Philippines have schools, and
Chicago’s Edwin R. Embree, president of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, thinks that
American students today are “over-educated” know-it-alls, lack intellectual
curiosity, and should take fewer natural sciences, more social sciences.
Press,
Literature, Etc.,
The New York mail delivery strike
has had Wall Street buying The Daily
Worker, PM Magazine summarising the funnies, and Mayor LaGuardia reading Dick Tracy on the radio on Sunday. Dolly
Thackrey is using family money to put together a newspaper chain which will
include the Paris Herald Tribune.
Isn’t it already a reprint service for American chains?
The Armed services now have a radio
network in Europe; and all four radio networks now have Berlin bureaus.
You
Came Along gets the leading feature review. The paper doesn’t like it
because it is too sad –and pat. A
Thousand and One Nights is not much of a movie but likely to do well,
especially on the strength of harem girls Evelyn Keys and Adele Jergens, with
comedy by Cornel Wilde.
Peter Quennell’s The Profane Virtues seems to be one of
those books that you read so that you can talk knowledgeably about famous books
(in this case English books from –let me count this out on my hand, a little
less than two hundred years ago) without actually reading them. But it is not
cheating because he has a point. About
“profane virtues,” I imagine. Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald has a biography-like
book-related thing, by his friend, Edmund Wilson.
Flight,
19 July 1945
Leaders
“End of a Chapter” Now that there
isn’t a war in Europe, and SHAEF is gone, it is time for the 2nd
Tactical Air Force to be dissolved. Which reminds the paper of the long and
storied history of RAF commands that were somewhat similar to the TAF. I
suppose it could be worse: no mention of the Aerial Battalion or the Balloon
Section, but there’s an awful lot of ancient history crammed into three
paragraphs ostensibly about the TAF. They don’t even get around to mentioning
that Typhoons have rockets, now!
“Pacific Strategy” Smash Japan until
something breaks? No, apparently it’s to . . . smash Japan until something
breaks –with planes!
“Empire Partnerships and World
Relations” It’s been ever so long since we talked about talking about civil
aviation, and here’s a chance to fit the Commonwealth and Empire in, too.
War
in the Air
This week, we’ve been smashing Japan
and hoping that something breaks. The smashing has involved B-29s, planes in
Burma, aircraft carriers, and perhaps soon other planes from 8th Air
Force in Okinawa. The Japanese have retaliated with balloon bombs and
human-guided bombs, and there is no sign of the rest of their air force, which
might be dead, or only resting. The Admiral’s raids must be very hard on the
Japanese ego, as the Japanese people are very conceited, on account of the
memory of one glorious naval victory long ago. (And you can bet your bottom
dollar I am using this one on James!) .
“The Air Plan” The RAF has made
quite a good movie about how Bomber Command won the war, with some help from
the other Commands and possibly those other services, like the army, navy and
coast guard. If England has a coast guard? Someone might need to help the Air Council out with that one.
Here
and There
Lieutenant General Stratemeyer has
gone to Chungking to replace Claire Chennault. Which is sad, because no-one can
really replace General Chennault, although General Stratemeyer can make a start
by never washing, taking up the eating of raw human flesh, and practicing
nameless perversions. If you haven’t the personality, you can always try
harder! Half a million people have been to see the “Britain’s Aircraft Exhibit.”
The paper is pleased because aircraft were involved, and because Air Chief
Marshal Portal called it a “wizard show.” Now that the war is over, it can be
revealed that in November of 1940, the RAF experimented with aerial mines
consisting of small bombs floating on long cables suspended from parachutes,
dropped into the midst of German bomber streams. They accounted for 5 German
aircraft, we are told, though how anyone could tell is beyond me. The Czechs
have asked for their air force back, now that they’re a country again. From the
way that we abbreviate “Czechslovakia” as “Czechs,” I have to wonder, for how
long? The new Corsair F4U is a vastly improved version of the plane, in the 425mph
class (wasn’t it in the 500mph class back in 1940?) It has 6 .50 machine guns
and a 2100 Pratt and Whtney Double Wasp engine driving a four-bladed c.s.
airscrew with a swept area of 13ft, 2”, can carry 2000lbs in bombs, and
introduces a push-button radio transmitter, “long in use by the RAF,” the paper
adds, waspishly. The Balkan Air Force has been dissolved, now that there’s no
longer a war on, except possibly in Greece. There have been great developments
in the field of inflatable rubber dinghies due to the war, the RAE wants us to
know. The British motor trade wants us to look forward to a bright new future
in which spare auto parts are delivered –by air! I’m feeling quite faint. The
Salvation Army in Australia has acquired a Tiger Moth, so that it can spread
the delights of Sunday door-to-door preaching to outlying areas of the country.
Isn’t that most of it? Douglas Santa Monica has been instructed to cease B-17
production immediately. The last Halifax from the Roots plant at Speke,
Liverpool, was delivered this week. Air Commodore Albert Fletcher, the last
member of the Aerial Battalion on active service, has been appointed to
administrative duties. However, this ancient mariner returned from retirement
in 1939, so he has not been in continuous service since the day. Although when
I looked him upin Who’s Who, it
turned out that he was only a year older than the Admiral.
“Short Sandringham” If you’re like
me and remember freezing in a metal hull (I’m repeating myself because it was awful) and stumbling out into a dinghy,
and you’re asking, “For Heaven’s sake, why?”
The answer is that even though the Short Sunderland was derived from a civil
flying boat, the design has been incrementally improved, and there are now plenty
of surplus Bristol Pegasus engines, as the museums can’t take all of them.
Besides, you can always have a snicker about there being “Ladies’ powder rooms,”
it being well known that gentlemen need no such conveniences for mere 20 hour
flights.
“First RAF Flight to Luzon” A Liberator
of RAF Transport Command made a “remarkable flight” with a “picked, all-British
crew” from England to Manila, 7000 miles, although as the article diffidently
notes, it stopped off in Calcutta. It is the first of many, as the RAF moves up
to take its part in smashing whatever bits of Japan might be left to smash at
that late date.
“New de Havilland Airscrews:
Hydromatic C.S, Feathering and Braking Airscrew: Manually Operated Type” It’s
quite exciting news that de Havilland has made some more of the same sorts of
airscrews as have been made since 1940! At the risk of sounding too dismissive, the actual point of the article
is that the company has come out with propellers suitable for its new line of
low horsepower inline, aircooled engines for small civil types. An ad for the Dragon Rapide, apparently
perfect for Canadian use, follows.
A. V. Cleaver, “Bombers or Rockets:
An Evaluation of the Relative Economy of Military Technical Effort in Piloted
and Pilotless Missiles: Continuing Development and Readiness Essential” The “readiness”
part is a little sinister, since there is something abrupt and sneaky about the
idea of an instant readiness rocket force. After all, the rockets would be
falling within minutes of the order to fire. It’s a return to the old,
pre-radar days of the “bolt from the blue,” although I guess less sinister than
a bolt involving armies, as while rockets blow up, they do not pillage and
despoil. In any event, the author, who is currently Chief Project Engineer
(Airscrews), and so out of a job soon enough, anyway, wants to argue with Lord
Cherwell, who characterised bombers as more efficient in a recent statement in
the Lords, on the basis of economy of man hours to build. Moreover, Cleaver
agrees with G. Geoffrey Smith, so he must be right! Cleaver points out that this analysis fails to
take into account all of the training and administrative apparatus required to
produce crews and maintain them. Multi-stage rockets will have greater ranges,
and atomic physics offers the possibility of a increasing the destructive power
of a given warhead weight, and very probably, increasing range by improving
propellant efficiency. Rockets will also become more accurate, and, as Air
Vice-Marshal Bennett said in a recent book, future rocket attacks will make the
V-2 bombardment look like a mere nuisance raid.
R. Dyrgalla, “Pilot’s View:
Limitations of Field Imposed by Aircraft Structure: A Yardstick of Measurement”
Unlike the Czechs, the Poles haven’t asked for their air force back, probably
as when they returned the young men would all want their 10,000 acre estates
back. This leaves them with plenty of time to write articles for Flight. This one is about how a pilot
can use sight lines from his plane (perhaps sighting over his wing tip and
triangulating from its known length?) to get a better sense of the airfield he
is approaching, which will allow airfields to be laid out on less land, and
thus economy for all! Or something utterly impractical like that. I hear this “radar”
thing will be big.
Indicator
Discusses “Essential Simplification: The Parting of Ways in Civil Aviation:
State-Owned Luxury or Business Proposition: Reducing Development, Production,
and Maintenance Costs; ‘Controlled Freedom’” Current air transport is working
off the back of the war effort, and so expense in Development, Production and
Maintenance Cost is no object. In the future, they must be on a sound business
basis, and some or other proposed civil aircraft may be impractical on that
ground. Government being involved, this lesson might not be learned quickly
enough, so “Indicator” fires his warning shot.
“Death of Sir Francis Shelmerdine”
The long time Director of Civil Aviation, who retired in 1941, has died. Four
years to enjoy the best days of his life, in case anyone is still wondering why
I am so eager to have James (Sir James,
I shout, just once this letter) out of the Service at his earliest
inconvenience.
“First Nuffield House in Burma”
Off-duty RAF personnel need a place to relax and recreate, and the very strong
Burmese opinion that “here is your hat and coat, if you leave now you will miss
the traffic on the bridge” makes it hard to do this in public, so Lord Nuffield’s
foundation has built a private place for this in a former teacher’s college. Because
training teachers is one of the things that the British won’t be doing in Burma
from here on.
G. Geoffrey Smith, “Progress with
Jet Propulsion” It is finally permissible to describe the Meteor, the
twin-engined jet fighter that chased V1s all over Kent at zero feet of altitude
last summer, but were still secret until just now. Probably because they are,
jet engine aside, embarrassingly pedestrian, and they also have their engines “buried”
in the wings, whereas the Germans and Americans hang theirs from pylons, and
this will be a matter of embarrassment for the Air Ministry until such time as
jet engines are as standardised in size and layout as V-12s are now. I think.
It’s also not that fast, in comparison to expectations from jets, in my
understanding. On the other hand, that tricycle undercarriage is quite neat,
and continues Mr. Dowty’s run of making very nice things that make him a lot of
money, and which no-one cares about. (The kind of firm which Uncle George would
like to invest in, if we could only get our money into Britian without raising eyebrows. Or if not our money. .. I
have a lead on a certain Railway College’s endowment, but I’ll leave that aside
for the moment, and just point out Dowty to the Earl.) There’s also some
interesting industrial tidbits. Apparently Rolls-Royce traded its tank engine
factory to Rover for the jet engine factory it was building? Presumably the
fact that Rover and Rolls-Royce are noted as the sponsors has something to do
with Group Captain Whittle’s recent personal problems. (That’s code for “Benzedrine,”
if you were wondering.) The new Rolls-Royce engine is very slightly more
powerful than the German plant in the Me 262, Smith implies, without saying
outright. I may just be imagining things, but isn’t the vagueness a tacit
admission that it is underpowered?
“Forward-Looking Design Policy”
Hawker Siddeley’s luncheon was brightened by showings of exciting models of odd
planes it will probably never build –the best kind, since they will never disappoint.
“A Magnificent War Record: Mr. T. O.
M. Sopwith Discloses Achievements of Hawker-Siddeley Group” The son of the
Chief Coal Mine Visitor of the Forest of Dean discloses that Hawker made many
aircraft, and that the best of them were “private versions.” Government has no
place in national defence! In America, where designs were selected by
competition, and then builders by separate competitions, results were worse
than in Britain. Too much private enterprise, and, in France, too little.
Britain was in the sweet and virtuous middle, and nothing should be done to
change that. Given that Hawker-Siddeley Group employment rose from 33,700 in
1938/9 to 100,157 in December 1943, and revenues no doubt in proportion, you
can see why Mr. Sopwith would be pleased with the current arrangements.
“Empire Route Partnerships: Good
Results at Commonwealth Air Transport Conferences” Just a word to the Earl? If
he knows any English readers, can he ask them to go down to the editorial
offices and cry in frustration on the desk until the Editor promises that all
future articles about talking about talking about civil aviation be told as
photo montages of babies and puppies? Thanks.
Civil
Aviation News
Have you ever wondered what airport
you will fly into when next you fly into London? The Heath Row location being
difficult for dark and dusky foreigners to pronounce, it will probably be
Swintonfield, although the paper suggests “Britonfield.” Manchester, have no
pronunciation problem (and probably no “foreigners voluntarily flying there”
problem) can settle for “Ringway.” There
is air service now to Berlin, probably a Canada-Australia one in the near
future, possibly freight services to Ireland to move agricultural goods, and talk
of aerial spraying of insecticides after a successful Swedish campaign against
the “pine looper” caterpillar using Gesarol, a contact poison “harmless to
humans.” Well, good news, that!
“Apprenticeship Training: Sir Frederick
Handley Page on the Importance of Maintaining a High Standard of Skill” If you
are reading the headline and thinking, “Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” the body of the
article is about training fitters and aeronautical engineers and the skills/knowledge
space between them. To fill it up, various schemes for apprentices to take
night courses, on the one hand; and for student aeronautical engineers to take
terms in the shops, on the other. Then, for the usual reasons of social
aspiration, the terms-to-class-appropriate-gainful-employment must be
normalised, so that upper middle class and upper lower class boys have paying employment
at the same age at an income suitable to wooing the right kind of girl for each,
and there you go, a complete scheme for training the highly skilled fitters and
riggers and maintenance engineers of the future.
Correspondence
Harold Pratley thinks that the
postwar British aircraft industry should employ only British personnel, as
foreigners are dusky, and smell of garlic. A. C. Critchley is not worried about
the emergency the paper has declared about their being perhaps three, perhaps
four American trans-Atlantic services to Britain’s one. The paper is undaunted,
though, as Britain shall be outnumbered, and while one American line spars with
BOAC, an another will slip around and sap the national flag carrier over the
head. As it goes in civil aviation. I don’t know, I haven’t been reading all
those articles.
Letters by David Dickinson, A. N.
Werner, Tim Haley, and the editor establish that W. Parker’s complaint about
aircraft being too loud these days was inspired by an Airspeed Oxford operating
an ungeared American engine, resulting in a transonic tip speed. American, you
say?
R. E. Gregory thinks that the paper
doesn’t do enough to promote British aviation products, which is
incomprehensible considering that British planes are the best in every possible
way except for Britain not having a rival to the Mars yet. “Klaxon” thinks that
airfield accidents and especially fires are horrible (probably the universal
attitude of everyone who has dealt with them), and has various suggestions for
improving the situation.
G. E. thinks that pilots need more
spirit in order to resist the excessive demands of the engineers.
Time,
23 July 1945
Well, that settled my stomach. The paper’s cover for this week is the
Admiral, with the tagline, “Kill Japs, kill Japs, and then kill more Japs.” At
some point I can see myself being moved to forgive Nanking. Exaggerating.
Mostly.
Correspondence
An Army sergeant writes that we
shouldn’t go to war with the Russians just because the Catholic church’s
propaganda campaign says that we should. Roy Webster of New York thinks that the
United Nations will only work with an “international language.” Frank Canaday
of Toledo has opinions about Americans having opinions about Britons, but
doesn’t explain what they are. Richard H. Barringer of Radnor, Pa, thinks that
now that Roosevelt has been buried, it is time to say that he is the third-best
President ever. With Cleveland in the next slot. . . .Several naval officers
are opposed to peacetime universal military training. Mrs. Robert Chamberlain
of Tacoma, Washington, thinks that London women have nothing to complain about
clothes prices wise, compared with Seattleites, based on what she’s read in the
Post-Intelligencer. Robert H. Markoe
of San Francisco adds to “Home Alive in ’45,” and “Through the Golden Gate in
’48,” “On the breadline in ’49.” Cheery! Our publisher writes to congratulate
readers for being so attentive of world affairs.
U.S.
At War
The President is in Potsdam! You
heard it here first! Joseph Grew says that the Japanese need to understand what
“unconditional surrender” will mean to them, as unofficial peace feelers make
it clear that there are terms they are already prepared to surrender under, so
we just have to move them from one camp to the next. Specifically, he suggests
a purge of militarists, Japanese sovereignty and religious freedom under a
post-militarist regime, and a reform of the Imperial office if the Japanese
decide to keep it. A statement will be
forthcoming after a significant military blow.
“I’m No Crackpot” Not having the
votes to do anything about the Charter, Senate opposition entertains and is
entertained by people like Mrs. Agnes Waters of the National Blue Star Mothers
of America, Ely Cuthbertson, Mrs. Helen Virginia Somers, who thinks that the
Charter is cover for a plot to make the Duike opf Windsor king of the world.
(She’s the one who isn’t a crackpot.)
https://books.google.ca/books?id=B7JZoQuU3eMC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=agnes+waters+blue+star+mothers&source=bl&ots=os5PxYjlCK&sig=beQVbqRtmH6RFcv3fKZ8X382z5c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAWoVChMI9rexv6bHxwIVkC6ICh0sTQgM#v=onepage&q=agnes%20waters%20blue%20star%20mothers&f=true
Mr. Bitle, a Russian-American of
Philadelphia, appeared in court under a petition to change the spelling of his
name to “Biddle,” only to find himself opposed by the Philadelphia Biddles. The
judge had no patience with them, so perhaps Mrs. Waters is wrong about America
needing a new revolution to get rid of the “real war criminals,” such as Mr.
Stettinus.
“Transition” The Bethlehem Shipyard
on Hingham Bay near Boston is shutting down, having been laying off men at the
rate of 500 per week for some months now, a rate easily absorbed by the rest of
the city’s war business.
“Midnight Massacre” Private Clarence
Bertucci, who took over guard duty at a POW camp in Salina, Utah, and then used
the machine gun in his watch tower to strafe the tent line below him and kill 8
German POWS, has been revealed at his court martial to have already been
court-martialed twice in England. On the other side of the wire, five German
POWs who killed another POW for political crimes have been executed in Fort
Leavenworth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_prisoner_of_war_massacre
“Bonus March” Henry Wallace normally
walks to work, but this week he took a Government Cadillac, as his office is
being picketed because it shares a building with the War Shipping
Administration, and the National Mariners’ Union is on strike. Good luck with
that large postwar merchant marine!
“Kickless Cannon” The paper is taken
by the Army’s new 57mm “recoilless” cannon, which vents erxhaust gas, and is
the most revolutionary development in artillery since the invention of the last
revolutionary thing –rifled artillery, the paper says, which, naturally, is
some kind of American thing by virtue of having its start in the Civil War.
In other army news, a childless 38
year-old wife has appealed for the expedited release of her husband before her
womb fails. The Senate Committee on army waste has the biggest story since the
Canol Road, a 905 mile highway from Panama to Mexico, originally budgeted at
$14 million, which ballooned to $42 million before it was abandoned.
Congressman Albert J. Engel is not surprised, and points out from his own
investigations other over-priced items.
World
Battlefronts
As you have heard at length, the
Third Fleet went inshore and tried to beat the Japanese into sending up planes
to fight. They didn’t. This is the entrée into the Halsey story, so we get to
hear more about Uncle George’s “Only American admiral to have lost two carrier
battles.” I suppose the question now is where Leyte Gulf counts on the
credit/demerit scale. We’re told, by the way, that Halsey won his nickname,
“Bull,” with his tackling style as a fullback on the “oft-defeated Navy team,”
and that he graduated two-thirds of the way down the class. We’re told that he
is “62,” which I suppose he is by some ways of counting, and that he lost three
destroyers in a typhoon, but not that he was out with an alleged psychosomatic
illness during the Midway campaign, or that his father was an admiral and his
grandfather a senator. More credit to
the Navy is Robert Sherrod’s profile of the Captain of Ticonderoga, Dixie Keefer, wounded in the recent kamikaze strike.
General Chennault, as we have heard, is out in Chungking.
A navy lieutenant says nice things
about brave Japanese fighting men, and some other lieutenants invent the new
grade of “lieutenant super grade” for men stuck at that rank for more than two
years while their army counterparts advanced. A Japanese hospital ship, on its
way to evacuate 1000 Japanese invalids from Wake Island was “embarrassingly
friendly” to the US destroyer which inspected them.
Command details in the Pacific are
close to being finalised. Spaatz, Nimitz and MacArthur won’t have to take
orders from each other because, you know, army, navy, air force.
International
The Pope sent a nice letter to the
head of UNRRA to thank him for his good work. News! (He typed it himself.) The
paper then goes on to explain the Bretton Woods agreement, which is news, but
why now? Because this week is its hearings before the Senate, where Robert Taft
is waging a last stand battle against it.
“The Long Road Home” In Europe,
populations are on the move as Germans evacuate Poland, slave labourers go
home, and Jews have nowhere to go.
“The Line is Busy” The transatlantic
telephone cable is too busy, and the queue of incomplete calls mounts steadily.
“Volcanic Tremors” The Russians are
bullying Turkey now. In Italy, there are Communist riots, and in Spain, Franco
is on the verge of dissolving the Falange. (Which didn’t really exist, anyway.) In Great Britain, there are tremors over the
unopened ballot boxes, which some believing that the forthcoming Conservative
majority will be “unworkably small,” and others, including the paper’s London
bureau, pointing out that available information is of a heavy swing against the
Conservatives. Some kind of Liberal-Labour government is predicted by others.
Actual polls, of course, continue to show a Labour sweep of at least 100 seats.
The paper forecasts that if socialists win in Britain, communists will win in
Europe. More news of housing “vigilantes” in England, led by one Harry Cowley,
who this week seized a vacant house in Maida Vale. In Germany, organisation of
Allied control in Berlin continues. Bastille Day celebrations in France were
restive, in a communistic sort of way. The Balkans are excitable this week.
Premier Soong flew back to China this week, and Yenan announced that it was on
the verge of forming its own government. In Japan, a reformation of the cabinet
around the Emperor may or may not make peace easier to achieve.
Oops –from here on I revert to 16
July for a few pages. Never mind. Talking about talking continues in India.
“India, among nations, is the ancient of days. Before even China, there was
India. Before human memory congealed from legend into record, India loomed from
the unimaginable reach of time. Its landscape matched its origins –an immense
wedge of the world, vast plains cracked by a too-hot sun, vast jungles writhing
with growth from too dense rains, vast cities melting under the unflagging
onset of oblivion. . . “ What I’m getting is that the paper had too much apple
pie and cheese last night, and didn’t
sleep well. Etc etc cover profile of Viscount Wavell. In other fronts of oblivion-prone
ancientness, Russia demands the return of the Kars Basin from Turkey. The paper
insists that Turkey not be left to yield, for as goes Kars, so goes Turkey. Canadian
troops riot in Aldershot over various issues, but primarily the fact that they’re
in Aldershot, and not Toronto.
In Latin America. . . Well,
excitable might understate news of the loss of a Brazilian warship at sea with
almost all its crew, probably to a drifting mine, and the appearance of U-530
at Mars La Plata more than two months after the end of the war, with munitions
and papers jettisoned. Whether it sank the aforementioned Brazilian vessel or
landed Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun is unknown.
People
Princess Elizabeth has some quite
fetching hats. Mrs. Imogenes Stevens, in spite of being “tiger-eyed,” is
defended by her husband for shooting someone, because it’s Texas, and shooting
people is practically hospitality. Speaking of different standards of
hospitality, Sergeant William Thompson has returned to Philadelphia to negotiate
a divorce through the newspapers, while the mother of his quadruptlets, Norah
Carpenter, waits to hear whether she will be allowed to follow her man from
England. Men! General MacArthur was not assassinated or inconvenienced in any
way by the seven-man special squad of Japanese soldiers sent to, well,
assassinate/inconvenience him. It turns out that Mary Astor Paul was working
for the French Resistance all along, and Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf returns
from Iran to celebrate his three year mission to train the Iranian police to
the standards of the New Jersey State police. I’m thinking about making a
sarcastic comment, but I’d probably have to contribute to the policemen’s ball
if I uttered it aloud. The paper is still appalled by James Caesar Petrillo. Joseph
Schllinger’s “rhythmic engineering” and Ryhthmicon are being given a try-out by
the Juilliard School, in case he’s on to something. Brenda Helser wears a
bathing suit well.
[continuing
23 July]
Business
“Limited Supply” Agriculture
Secretary Clinton P. Anderson told the U.S. “two blunt facts.” First, America
can’t feed the world. Second, unless we get better weather in the Midwest soon,
we might have difficulty feeding ourselves next year. The feed grain harvest is
set to be the smallest since 1941, you see. Although the hay crop is set to be
a record, the prospect of a feed shortage has led to the postponement of plans
to increase the subsidy price for pork and beef. He may also ban the diversion
of grain to alcohol production starting 1 August, or divert more wheat to
animal feed. The wheat crop is set to be the largest ever, but due to the
impending diversion will not be enough. Thus, the famine of next-year. Of
course, you do need to bear in mind that there is a famine every next year.
“Wall Street Reds” Oklahoma’s
Congressman Lyle Boren (D, of course) has discovered evidence that Wall Street
investment bankers intend to “socialise” the $18 billion US electrical utility
industry and make “many billions in the process.” Guy C. Miller and Howard L. Aller,
of American Power and Light, are said to be behind the scheme to sell utilities
to cities at inflated prices. In other swindling news, the “shocking,
disgusting” tax cheat not named by Secretary Morgenthau is named by the Daily News as Harry Lustig, operator of
the twelve-restaurant Longchamps chain.
Uncle Henry has found a new way for
the Government to give him Fontana for free. His plane makes the front page of
the section, too!
“A Very Tough Baby” American Philips
announced expansions of its three New York plants this week, apparently
“setting the whole $3 ½ billion U.S. electronics industry on edge.” The reason
is that this is deemed to be a foreign invasion, since Philips is a Dutch
company. This well-cartelised firm might challenge GE, RCA, and Westinghouse.
Philips made soothing noises about staying out of the lightbulb business and
sticking to inoffensive items such as cathode ray tubes, diamond dies, etc.,
but the fear is that eventually the firm would exercise its American patent
rights in the radio and electronics fields and compete with the companies which
own those licenses.
“The British Are Coming” The first
post-war British car import arrived in New York harbour this week. It is the 10
hp Austin sedan. It will be followed by 20 more export models, featuring chrome
trimmings and leather upholstery, absent from domestic models, with 15 going to
Argentina. Austin expects to send 2400 cars to America by year’s end, 30% of
its output. “Detroit’s motormakers are not worried.”
Science,
Medicine, etc
Master Sergeant Frederic Hensel, the
first American “basket case” of this war, is back from Okinawa. As he says,
he’ll make An excellent propaganda photo to end all wars.” Last week’s eclipse
ovbservations were the best in years, and may help scientists understand why
the Sun’s corona is so much hotter than its body. Experimental fog sprays of
DDT seem to have been successful in Long Island, with no effect on humans,
animals and birds. That being said, the next story features a man who recovered
from DDT poisoning in a lab exposure, so not that harmless.
“A Machine that Thinks” Dr. Vannevar
Bush, who has appeared in a story like this before, if I’m recalling things
correctly, says in the July Atlantic that
he believes that a “thinking” machine of limited intellectual capacity can be
built. It would be a brain robot that would spare humans much of the spadework
of thinking. An electrical and photographic contraption, it would contain and
sort many of the ideas and images that a man uses to think, and recall them
logically. It would be a sort of “memex” machine, combining microfilm and
electronic tubes, actuated by a keyboard rather like a typewriter’s. He is
especially taken by the way it might improve on a library catalogue, and thinks
that the memex is inevitable due to the coming age of devices of great
complexity and reliability.
People
Stars
and Stripes is upset at Frank Sinatra, who is upset at the USO.
Infantile-paralysis stricken Marjorie Lawrence is doing a tour of British camps
in a wheelchair. Judge Arnold and Attorney General Clark look well in bathing
suits. Colonel James Roosevelt, on active duty with the Marines since 1940,
arrived in San Diego from the Philippines this week for “rest and routine
checkup” at a Navy hospital. The quotation marks are the paper’s, because I’m not trying to imply anything.
(Imagine me making drinking noises.) Marlene Dietrich is back in New York after
a seven month USO tour for what she describes as a “complete overhauling.” The
Diligenti quintuplets make an appearance in Buenos Aires, looking like
fresh-scrubbed angels. Luise Rainer, who, appallingly, beat out our starlet
friend for the lead in The Good Earth, has
married. The death of Joseph Morton, the “only war correspondent executed by
the Nazis” is announced. As has Alla Nazimova.
Radio,
Press, Cinema, Books
The paper notices that everyone is
singing the Chiquita Banana song.
Please, sir, make it stop. Editor Andrew Kemper Ryan of the Catholic Standard and Times of
Philadelphia thinks that soap operas are un-Christian. The paper is in a tizzy
over The Daily Mail being in a tizzy
over the postwar fate of the “pirate” Radio Luxembourg, which American
interests may or may not be trying to take over. The paper reports that the New
York newspaper strike might be about to be resolved by Chicago-style tactics.
It is quite taken by ‘Weegee,’ Arthur Fellig, the celebrity photographer.
“The New Pictures” The Story of GI Joe is out. The paper thinks
that by showing that war is hell, this movie might be Ernie Pyle’s most
enduring memorial. Christmas in
Connecticut, on the other hand, is “moth-eaten.” It also thinks that there
is a mistake in tone, that Warner Brothers thought that the characters were
attractive, so that the whole thing was a comedy, whereas in fact it was some
kind of awful detective noir, only with
no murders, because of the holiday, and so, no life.
The paper leads off with a review of
Stuart Cloete’s Against the Three.
It’s a book about things that happened in South Africa, which might interest
you as a veteran. Harry Brown’s Artie
Greengroin, Pfc is an American soldier in England waiting for D-Day who has
amusing misadventures. Ricardo Palma’s book about Pizarro and others, the Knights of the Cape, is out in
translation. Because originally it was in Spanish, and presumably hade another
title, in Spanish.
Flight,
26th July 1945
“The ‘Sixth Freedom’” The freedom to
talk endlessly about civil aviation policy, no matter how readers cry in frustration
and boredom, is the sixth freedom, which Mrs. Roosevelt forgot to mention.
“Continuity of Policy” Just to
clarify, what is meant is that the new Labour Government is welcome to change
anything to do with anything except aviation, where everything is fine. So go
away. Also, no nationalisation.
“Australian Airlines” Just to be
clear, that goes for Australia’s plan to nationalise its airlines, too.
“Private Enterprise” Just to
reinforce what Mr. Sopwith said last week, Rolls-Royce wants us to remember
that the Merlin started out as the “P.V. 12,” short for “Private Venture.”
War
in the Air
Have we mentioned that we are now bombing
Japan and now naval-ly bombarding it with battleships, now? Word is that 8th
Air Force will re-equip with B-29s when it arrives in the Pacific, and in
exciting recent news that has just broken and is very exciting, there will be
British heavy bombers there, too! Since most Japanese live in rickety wooden
houses, burning their cities has been very effective, but the Japanese have
recently caught on to the modern, exotic, Western material called “concrete,”
which was personally invented by John Stuart Mill using the Scientific Method.
These are better blown up with very lar6e bombs, such as Lancasters can lift.
It is a good thing that the Japanese do not have “the butterfly,” a
radio-controlled anti-aircraft rocket projectile capable of reaching 600mph and
a ceiling of 50,000ft, which doesn’t actually sound like the formula for
performance advantage that actually ends up with a B-29 being shot down (if the
ignition period is as short as a V-2s, anyway). Still, quite a start, and,
radar-guided, probably a more than sufficient answer to night-bombing
Lancasters.
“Beechcraft UC-43 Traveller” Is a
plane which exists, and has been sold in large numbers to the USAAF for
training purposes, but it still needs to be shown here! (See below.)
Here
and There
Wing Commander A. G. Pither points
out in a recent radio address from Melbourne that the Germans were working on a
disintegrating uranium bomb that would have been many times more destructive
than a V2 rocket. A single 24lb uranium charge has more explosive power than
the entire charge of a V-2. Is that including the kinetic energy of the impact?
In other frontiers of aviation
science, the RAF has begun parachuting mules to frontline troops in Burma. Although
since the frontline troops in Burma are relaxing and waiting for the end of the
monsoon, either we are now doing it for fun, or this is an old story.
“Britain Leads” Says Major H. P.
Kilner, deputy-president of the SBAC in charge of patting yourself on the back.
The Duke of Sutherland, on the same line, tells the Aerial League of the
British Empire that only the vastest possible RAF can make future aggression
impossible by threatening would-be aggressors with aerial annihilation. Not getting
the memo is New York Radio, which reports a B-17 four-engine aircraft altitude
record of 43,400ft.
“Westward to the East”
Hey! That’s my joke! Anyway, the
last of 2,118 Fortresses and Liberators of 8th Air Force flew out of
Britain last week, carrying the last 31,000 of 8th Air Force’s
personnel, bound for home, and, eventually, the Far East. In the Far East, a
Chungking newspaper says nice things about General Chennault. “It’s nice to see
you go, etc.”
U.S. aircraft production is down to
only 5,794 against the 6,022 quota, says “WPBoss Krug.” No, the paper doesn’t
call him that, but I can’t resist. Anyway, this is one of the longest term
trends around at this point, and spells out American war weariness in twenty
feet letters of fire, but I suppose we have to ignore that and pretend that it
is news every month, or morale will suffer. Sir Edward Campell, long time
parliamentary secretary to Sir Kingsley Wood, has died. Never mind James, sir,
when are you and Uncle George getting home?
The suspicious death of A. J.
Sikora, who plunged from the 20th floor of a Chicago high rise hotel
after checking plans for B-29 production out for the weekend, is being treated
as enemy action. By Curtiss Wright and Reuters. No word on whether the FBI is
looking for Mata Hari’s daughter, newly in possession of precise details about
the thickness tolerances for B-29 wing skinning.
The ATC is getting new hats, or
something, now that the war is over. The United States Navy stops the presses
to reveal that it has now 26 “line” aircraft carriers and 65 escort carriers,
plus two 45,000 ton vessels of the new “battle” carrier type. The Air Ministry
reports that the search for a Liberator which left Montreal on 3 July with
Government officials coming back from San Francisco has been abandoned. Mr. G.
Vokes was made President of the Association of British Filter Manufacturers in
a nailbiting vote at its inaugural meeting. Mr. E. M. Frazer, formerly of ICI,
has been released from official duties at the Ministry of Aircraft Production
at his own request. I don’t have to remind you that you are invited to Santa
Clara for the twin’s second birthday, do I? I’m not going to make out that it
will be quite the shindig, but you will need to book at least two weeks.
Sqn Leader Charles Gardner, “Close
Support in Burma” Whee-ow! Pow! Pew-Pew! Ro-arr! Bang! It is amazing how much
better radios have gotten in the last six years, not that Gardner has a moment
to spare for that while he is rhapsodising about how well close support is
controlled, and how quickly it responds to ground calls for assistance.
“Sir F. Bowhill’s New Post” The Air
Chief Marshal who led Coastal Command in its most difficult days is rewarded
with a nice appointment having to do with international civil aviation. I say “nice,”
because it has been decided that this will need to be done in Montreal. It’s
not New York or San Francisco, but its not rationed, either.
Victor L. Gruberg, “Europe’s Air
Transport” Forget crying. Bring a gun to the paper’s office. (Actually, There are
some nice illustrations of air routes, and an explanation of why American civil
aviation was more common before the war in terms of density of routes and
economy of carriers. I think that the structure of the air mail subsidy had
more to do with it than that, but what do I know?)
“Postwar Cirrus Engines” They will
provide power in ranges from 90hp to 155hp, and Cirrus will get very upset at
anyone making a “putt-putt” noise.
W. O. Shackleton, “Weighty Problems:
If One Ounce Saved is Worth Its Weight in Gold, a Nine-stone Pilot Ought to be
paid £630 More Than a Twelve-Stone Pilot –Says Horace”
Well, it’s not a photo montage of
babies and puppies, but it’s an improvement. W. O. and Horace enter their
office, and see the pile of unpaid bills. “The telephone is ringing wildly. It
is the Editor. He says we will write an article on the importance of saving
weight in aircraft. So we say wew have no desire to do any such thing and why
is it so important to save weight in aircraft. The Editor says everybody knows
it is important to save weight in aircraft, so we say if everybody knows about
it what is the point of writing about it? He can have all the weight that is
saved, and what ide does with the weight that is saved is none of our business.
Besides, we are now dealers in aircraft, and if aircraft can only carry half as
much payload, perhaps we can sell twice as many! The Editor says that is a plausible
but entirely fictitious argument, and will we write that article? We say that
we are not interested, so he says of
course we will write that article, and he wants it typed in triplicate,
double spacing. He would like to be about 1,587 words so that it will just fill
up a space he has left, and it must be well constructed, snappy, and informative,
wiuth no split infinitive=s –in fact, a sound, scholarly bit of prose.
“We tell him that our name is
Shackleton, not Shakespeare. Then he says that it will be written so that if he
or the Censor blue-pencils anything it must just read on as if nothing has happened.
Also, we are not to use unnecessary words, such as saying something is pressed
out in two halves, because everybody knows how many halves there are, and he
would cut the word out and we should not be paid for it.”
Which is probably as good an
explanation as any for why things get in this paper, why they are written as
they are, and why, if weight saving is so important, small pilots are not paid
more than big ones. The rest of the article –about 600 words, per request,
takes on various statements by various people, notably including Dr. Klein of
the SAE Journal, to the effect that. . .
“Air Registration Board: Some Interesting
Facts Disclosed by Sir Maurice Denny” If B. J. Hurren articles didn’t prove it
already, there is a bit of a double standard going on here, as ‘interesting’
wasn’t blue-pencilled out.
Civil
Aviation News
Oh, Good Heavens. It’s at least
vaguely interesting that the whole of Sabena is coming home, having flown away
in 1940, spending the war years flying such as needed flying about the middle
bits of Africa, where the Belgians are in charge, with much less head and hand
cutting off than formerly. It’s also interesting that the total number of
American civil airliners is 279, down from 354 in 1941, although they do fly a lot.
Canada is to have a trans-Atlantic service, which it will not pool with the
rest of the Commonwealth.
“OSC-1 Air Survey Camera” It may
look like a fishing tackle box, but it
is an air survey camera, which the RAF used in the late war, and which everyone
is now using. The writers cannot help ending with observations about massive
German state-supported military precision engineering manufacturing and the
vast resources of the American government and interior market, and pointing out
how the plucky British manufacturer overcomes the competition with pure pluck.
It makes a better story if you don’t look at prewar Air Estimates. Various
details on its “automatic precision” are provided for potential customers,
which probably include you, sir, for timber cruising, so I should probably have
noted more details when I had the chance.
“Technician,” “Test Pilots and
Designers: ‘Indicator Taken to Task for his views on Pushers: Of Water-Cooled
Slide Rules” Indicator is like an old time fastest gun in the West. Someone is
always taking him on. As for water-cooled slide rules (if you were wondering
what to get James for Christmas, get two!), they’re apparently overdone in this
whole aircraft design thing, but that doesn’t mean that test pilots are
equipped to understand all the very complicated things that designers have to
know, and they shouldn’t bother their pretty heads with them.
A. Sipowicz, “Dangers in Turning:
Author of Original Article Replies to his Critics” The critics are silly; but
also no-one cares about the dangers of turning high performance aircraft at
high speed except a few fighter pilots.
“The End of the Line: Last Airspeed
Oxford Trainer Delivered to the RAF” But they will remain in service forever,
high-speed tips and all. Airspeed just needs to focus on its AS 57, is all.
Correspondence
E. Lindsay Shankland tells the paper
not to get so worried about international trans-Atlantic competition. M. T.
Moore thinks that Mr. Pratley, of the last issue, is an idiot. W. Adam Woodward
contributes to the vexed issue of flying boat moorings. “Dicer” and S. Field
contribute to the airscrew noise discussion with observations about technical
considerations such as abrupt pitch changes and bladed tip waves. Senrab thinks
correspondent Douglas Deans is a little silly to be worrying about large and
expensive planes with lots of gadgets. You are not going to cross the Atlantic with
small planes without kitchens and “powder rooms!” As for cheap holiday
excursions to the Continent, Deans should worry about convenient airfields, not
cruising speeds. A two hour jaunt to wherever it is Britons go in France to
have their snail legs and frog tails and cheap wine becomes a three hour jaunt
if the airfield is in some impractical nook and cranny. Or the middle of San
Francisco Bay, and, no, I will never let that go.
Time,
30 July 1945
Correspondence
Lieutenant George Sleicher has
thoughts about democracy. Grace Dumm, of Garden Grove, California, is appalled
at the avalanche of criticism General Patton has received. Howard Coonley, of
New York, writes to say that he agrees with everything that Congressman Judd
had to say about China, and, in
particular, to praise Wong Wen-hao. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph C.
Stehlin, “public relations officer” of the (Fightin’) Thirteenth Air Force
writes in to take credit for the Australian success in Borneo, because
Australia isn’t Red enough and anti-American enough, yet. A serviceman who
withholds his name recounts being chided by a German woman for American
treatment of Jews and Negros, and is appalled that the only difference is
hypocrisy. And not mass-murdering. That’s a difference, too. Mrs. Marion Reilly
of Arlington, Virginia, is appalled at Senator Bilbo’s filibuster of the Fair
Employment Practices Commission, while on the other hand R. E. Brenneman, of
Glendale, California, thinks that the paper shouldn’t have publicised this
action against a piece of legislation that “common sense and good taste” should
not have allowed to advance. Notice that we don’t need to discuss the
legislation or its intention, because it is just not in good taste. Robert E.
Fullilove of New Orleans and Mrs. Carol Whitney of Westborough, Virginia, agree
with Mrs. Reilly over Mr. Brenneman, however so he is in the minority. Marcia
Davenport observes that the new Navy remedy for air and seasickness
(scopolamine) is not new at all, but was marketed before the war by a German
company. But the navy stole the idea from foreigners fair and square!
US
At War
The President is talking about
things at Potsdam, while Congress declines to talk more about Bretton Woods, on
the grounds that they’ll just end up exposing how little they know about it,
and, besides, a nything Robert Taft is against must have good qualities. More
rumours of cabinet changes in Washington. Ickes and Stimson might be out, with
the latter replaced by “blowhard” Louis Johnson, and also Forrestal, to be
replaced by John Lawrence Sullivan. Clare Booth Luce is back from Russia,
saying not-nice things about Reds.
Madame Chiang is still in New York, on account of suffering from
exhaustion, nervousness, a chronic skin condition, and the fact that her money
is having trouble getting used to American ways, and needs its Mummy around to
comfort it. Rustling is becoming an issue in ranch country. John McCain is
coming ashore to Washington, and the Veterans Administration, to be replaced by
Towers. John Hoover goes in as Towers’ replacement. Louis Denfeld is coming
ashore to an unannounced post ashore, perhaps Bureau of Personnel. But the old
men still aren’t budging.
“Hurry Home” On one recent day,
31,445 soldiers arrived in New York. That includes Queen Elizabeth’s mammoth load, and it can’t arrive every day, but
that’s still a huge number of men. To illustrate, the paper tells the story of
the 30 day furlough of Private Charles Horn of the 86th Division,
late Los Angeles, on his way to the Pacific now. He slept, showed his Dad all
his souvenirs, slept more, went out to bars with his buddies, lived at the
Hermose Biltmore for a few weeks on some war bonds, shipped out for Japan.
World
Battlefronts
“Guesses and Explosives” Still
no-one’s seen Japanese aircraft lately. Are they dead, or just resting? The
navy says dead, the army says resting. Heavy bombing, and Halsey’s raiding, has
failed to draw them up, but Admiral Ramsay thinks that 9000 Japanese aircraft
are waiting for the invasion. The paper wonders why the Army Air Force bombed
Hitachi four days after the naval bombardment without even waiting for the
navy’s damage assessment, but, it is pointed out, the navy wouldn’t share it
anyway, and the army doesn’t care. Good way to fight a war, gentlemen. The
first European veteran combat troops arrived in the Philippines this week.
Unlike them, the Japanese are still fighting the Australians. At least since,
according to MacArthur, the war in the Philippines is effectively over. Or, as
the next story says, “the defeated enemy fought without hope.”
“China’s Need” Is more supplies,
says Chiang. American bombers from Okinawa raided Shanghai this week, because
it was too nice for the Japanese as it was.
International
There’s so much talking going on in
Potsdam that it needs two stories! The paper certainly likes Alger Hiss! I
mean, I quite liked him, but he’s that certain kind of man, at least, I
thought, and the paper should be careful about starting rumours, as they can
come back on you. Who the paper doesn’t like in Berlin is Russian soldiers, who
are too soldiery. And they’re packing German factories off to Russia, which
they’re allowed to do, but still seems like bad form, somehow.
The blackout is over in Britain for
good, and so are hairdos, at least, at a show in Albert Hall. The Times of London, surely not by accident,
prints the obituaries of Richard Dudman, killed at El Alamein, previously
reported missing; of Peter Dudman, now reported killed in action in Italy in
November 1943, and of Pilot Officer John Dudman, reported missing on 11 June
1944. They were the three sons of William James and Nora Dudman, killed by
enemy action in September 1940. The Athenaeum Club is threatening expulsion of
members who steal the times of London, Economist,
and Times Literary Supplement. But
not Engineering. The Youth Advisory
Committee thinks that British young people lack a place to meet friends, talk
and eat, and could use something like the American drug store.
French, Belgians, Spaniards, Irish,
Italians, American soldiers on leave in Paris and Czechs are excitable.
Russians are somewhat awful, and Berlin is less awful than reported.
“Top Secret” T. V. Soong is back
from Moscow, but what he talked about is top-secret. Stalin, though, wants the
Communists in government; and asserts that Russia must have special rights in
Sinkiang,Outer Mongolia, and “China’s northern provinces.” Soong holds out for
“special regions,” only.
“Free Japan Committee” Yenan has
formed this committee around Susuku Okano and Yukio Ozaka.
Business
“The UP Trail” This is the cover
story –no general, at last, but “[Bill] Jeffers of the Union Pacific,” so
insufferably long, but at the same time, very much of the moment. It’s up to
the UP to get the men across the Continental Divide to the Pacific embarkation
ports. He’s been in rails all his life, except for a spell in Washington as the
rubber boss in 1942 –not exactly a recommendation, in my book, and, no, I don’t
feel very good about the black market tyres I dole out--. Anyway, railroads, a
thing right now.
“Joe Kennedy Buys” The former
Ambassador to the Court of St. James proves his dignity by buying Merchandise
Mart.
Talking about talking about civil
aviation wil never end!
Willys-Overland debuted its civilian
jeep this week. Pan American will face competition from Unitged on its Pacific
route. New tyres are expected on the ration cards in February or March. This
will, however, required finding 75,000ts of hard rubber somewhere.
Concidentally, the last of the 1942 cars have been dropped from rationing. You
want one (of 20,000 remaining), you got it.
Science,
Medicine,
Polio cases have soared 26% over
1946, although the increase has tapered off since June. A Navy sailor has now
officially survived suffering burns to 83% of his body. The War DEepartment is
discharging 900 doctors immediately, 7000 through year’s end. The discovery
that there are 8, not 2 Rh blood types improves the accuracy of paternity tests
from one in three to 50-50, so look out, men! Vannevar Bush, in the news last
week for his memex machine, appears this week with a blueprint for American
science, which is sort of a cradle-to-grave scheme for scientists to lead to
America ruling the science-world. He also wants a relaxation of science
censorship, which naturally leads to W. L. Everitt revealing the radar secret.
“John, don’t you think we ought to tell Junior about radar before he picks it
up in the street?” The paper finally reveals the real problem: a patent fight
between alleged British and American inventors. Well, from what I know about
Amjerican inventors, I know how that’ll go! J. B. S. Haldane thinks that the
universe is 500 bilion years old, that the Earth is 4 billion, and has been
cool enough for life for 3; and that it is actually getting warmer, due to
radioactive decay, and will continue to get warmer for a billion years yet.
People
Clara Driscoll died this week. The
Duke of Windsor is on to the south of France looking for somewhere affordable
to do nothing. Marlene Dietrich is still back in New York. Patrice Munsel looks
well in a bathing suit. General Ben Lear is still being ridiculed by the
troops.
Press,
Radio
Roy Howard is going to the Pacific
now that Lee Miller has “flopped” as Ernie Pyle’s successor. Sounds like a job
for the boss’s son! Norman Rosten, a writer for radio, went public to lash out
at sponsors for dictating what writers can say. Radio manufacturers hope to
have a million units out by year’s end, with Sentinel of Chicago promising a
“shirt pocket” 12 oz model which will be able to pick up standard stations
almost anywhere, at a price of between $20 and $30. A radio that you can carry
in your pocket? At one and the same time my cynical self is moved to doubt that
this is going to turn out to be correct; while my technically minded self
(thank you, Sister Maria Agnes!) can see it as a near-future inevitability.
Just imagine!
“The New Pictures”
Anchors
Aweigh features Sinatra dancing
opposite Gene Kelly. He’s a far braver man than Uncle George gave me the
impression of his being! Also in it are some girls to dance with them, as
otherwise see my comments about Mr. Hiss. And I know what they say about San
Francisco, but it still remains that men of sensitive and artistic mien were
all over the Conference! Where was I? Oh, yes: Kathryn Grayson. Teen-Age Girls and Where’s the Meat are topical. The former reminds us that girls
between 13 and 19 or so are difficult –I just thank Heavens that I had a little
dose of “Miss V. C.” to remind me of how silly I was a few short years ago
ahead of my own reaching that age in –oh, Good Heavens, 1957. Where’s the meat
is about how the demand for meat is growing faster than the supply, I guess. Don John Quiilligan is supposed to be
fuynnyt, succeeds occasionally.
In books, this is the publishing
doldrums, and there are none to speak of.
*"A future America, populated by horse-faced, spindly giants with big feet"; Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/reckless-breeding-of-the-unfit-earnest-hooton-eugenics-and-the-human-body-of-the-year-2000-15933294/#ooo6uytpXLDbTqQR.99
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