WesWorld

Quoted from "Hood"

7 October
Formation of the Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS) set up for the British Foreign Office by Brigadier Richard Gambier-Parry, the first Foreign Office Director of Communications at Whaddon Hall, Buckinghamshire. The primary role of the DWS is communications between British embassies and the Britain, but it also operates and maintains transmitters at home and abroad on behalf of the Foreign Office for the broadcasting of the BBC European Service and Overseas Service. [OOC knowledge: DWS operators are also involved in radio eavesdropping, the gathering of signals intelligence for GCHQ, from within the compounds of embassies.]

Quoted from "Hood"

8 October
The Workers Committee for National Liberation – Political Organisation for the Working Class (WCNL) has published its programme. It is both nationalist and anti-capitalist and calls for the expulsion of all British troops from Egypt, land reform, and nationalizations. WCNL has distributed 15,000 copies of the programme, plus 25,000 copies of an accompanying statement.

Quoted from "Hood"

Bruce,
They would be in other overseas territories of Great Britain, at least the transmitters used for BBC broadcasts. I would have assumed most major powers would have radios in their main embassies these days for quick communications. I thought that was a common thing by the late 40s? The DWS is indeed an OTL development. Of course I'm sure the counter-intelligence folks of all nations already evesdrop on this kind of information anyway where it exists.

Quoted from "Hood"

Good points. Probably embassies' use is minimal then. Gambier-Parry is going to have a lot of time for the Times crossword and tiffin, but its still handy to have around just in case...

Quoted

Running between 1-15 October at Earls Court, this year at the British Motor Show, Britain’s car manufacturers are showing off their latest models released this year and new cars for 1946. Following soon after the Berlin show, the best of British products are on show for the home market.

The Allard Motor Company, founded in 1936 by Sydney Allard have been building specials to compete in Trials (timed events somewhat like rallies but through much worse terrain, almost impassable by a wheeled vehicle) powered by a variety of Ford-sourced engines, including Lincoln-Zephyr V12 engines. Volume production began in 1943 and this year using Ford parts and mechanicals and bodywork of Allard's own design, three further models were introduced; the J, a competition sports car; the K, a slightly larger car intended for road use, and the L, with four seats.

Allard K

The Alvis Car and Engineering Co. Ltd. this year has been acquired by the NEE group. A new model planned for next year is the TB 14 two-seat open-top sports car based on the running gear of the TA 14 saloon. Alvis has contracted AP Metalcraft, a Coventry coachbuilder, to produce the body featuring heavily cut away door tops on the rear hinged doors, very long sweeping front wings, a fold down windscreen and a pear-shaped radiator grille with the bottom side bulges concealing the headlights. The 1892 cc engine of the TA 14 is modified to produce 68hp by fitting twin SU carburettors, the non-independent leaf springing suspension is retained and the car will reach 80 mph.

Alvis TB 14

The Austin Motor Company celebrated the production of its millionth car, an Austin 16 family saloon, this year. The new Austin A40 series has been expanded beyond the four-door Devon and two-door Dorset to include a new Countryman estate for 1946 with further commercial van and pickup truck models based on this design also to be released next year.

A40 Pickup

A40 Countryman

The Ford Motor Company displayed the new 1946 Model Anglia which features styling updates but retains the same mechanicals and 933 cc straight-four side-valve engine for home markets and an 1172 cc straight-four engine for some export markets. The price is £309 including taxes.

Ford Angila

Frazer Nash introduced its new High Speed BMW-powered sports car this year for the racing market. A new model for 1946 is the Fast Tourer, a full width body variant of the High Speed with identical engine and transmission.

Frazer Nash Fast Tourer

This year a new company introduced itself to the public with two exciting new sports cars. The Donald Healey Motor Co. Ltd. was formed this year by Donald Healey, a renowned auto engineer and successful racing driver. It was formed after Healey discussed sports car design with Achille Sampietro, a chassis specialist for high performance cars and Ben Bowden, a body engineer. The cars will use a tuned version of the Riley twin cam 2.4 litre four cylinder engine in a light steel box section chassis of Healey design using independent front suspension by coil springs and alloy trailing arms with Girling dampers. The rear suspension uses a Riley live axle with coil springs. Advanced design allows soft springing to be combined with excellent road holding. Lockheed hydraulic brakes are used. The two new models for 1946 are the two-seat Healey Westland Roadster and the Healey Elliott saloon, which will be the fastest production closed-body car in the world, being timed at 104.7 mph over a mile. The body has been tested in a wind tunnel to refine its aerodynamics.

Healey Westland

Healey Elliott

Humber’s display stand included the new Super Snipe Mk II for 1946 with an updated body with the headlights fitted into the wings and running-boards re-introduced and transverse-spring independent suspension continues to be used as des the 65hp six-cylinder engine. A drophead coupé made by Tickford will appear in 1947. The Humber Hawk Mark II version which went on sale in September has a very mild facelift, the main difference being a column gear change. The new Humber Pullman Mark II for 1945 features a lengthened chassis and headlights now fitted into the wings. The Pullman is now available with or without a partition between the front and rear of the cabin. The version with a division retains the Pullman name, those without are badged Humber Imperial.

Humber Snipe MkII

Jowett Cars Limited, founded in 1901 by brothers Benjamin and William was bought by property developer Charles Clore this year. With increased investment the firm has launched its new Jowett Javelin. The Javelin has a 50hp flat four overhead valve engine of 1486 cc with an aluminium block and wet cylinder liners giving the car a maximum speed of 77 mph and a 0-50 mph time of 13.4 seconds. Two Zenith carburettors are fitted. A four-speed gearbox with column change is used. Design features include aerodynamic styling with the headlights faired into the wings and a steeply sloped, curved windscreen. The body is of pressed steel incorporating a box-section chassis is made by Briggs Motor Bodies. The suspension use torsion-bars on all wheels (independent at the front) and internal gear-and-pinion steering. PA and PB models have mixed Girling hydraulic brakes at the front and mechanical braking at the rear. Later versions will be fully hydraulic. The car has a wheelbase of 102 inches and a track of 51 inches. The Javelin costs £819.

Jowett Javelin

The Morris Motor Company launched its new Oxford MO which will go on sale in 1946.
The Oxford MO replaces the Ten Series. Designed by Alec Issigonis, the Oxford, introduces unit construction techniques and torsion bar front suspension to Morris. Another new feature is all-round hydraulically operated 8 inch drum brakes. The engine is a side-valve straight-four engine with a single SU-carburettor displacing 1.5 litres and an output of 40.5hp. Top speed is 72 mph. The four-speed gearbox has a column gearchange and steering is by rack and pinion. The MO will be sold as a 4-door saloon and a 2-door Traveller estate with exposed wood. The price will be £805 including taxes.
A commercial vehicle version of the Oxford MO will be produced as a van, pickup, or chassis cab model marketed as the Morris Cowley MCV.

Morris MO

The Rover Car Company had a new concept on show this year. The Land Rover was conceived as a new niche product for export markets abroad. Maurice Wilks, Rover's chief designer came up with a plan to produce a light agricultural and utility vehicle with military potential. The first prototype had the steering wheel was mounted in the middle of the vehicle and was built on a new chassis and uses the engine and gearbox of the Rover P3 saloon. The 4-speed gearbox is used with a new 2-speed transfer box which incorporates a 4-wheel drive system with a freewheel unit (as used on several Rover cars). This disengages the front axle from the manual transmission on the overrun, allowing a form of permanent 4WD. A ring-pull mechanism in the driver's footwell allows the freewheel to be locked to provide more traditional 4WD. The bodywork is made from an aluminium/magnesium alloy called Birmabright. The first pre-production Land Rovers were developed in late 1944 and tests showed the prototypes to capable and versatile. The PTO drives from the front of the engine and from the gearbox to the centre and rear of the vehicle allowed it to drive farm machinery, exactly as a tractor would. It was also tested ploughing and performing other agricultural tasks. However, as the vehicle was readied for production the steering wheel was mounted off to the side as normal, the bodywork was simplified to reduce production time and costs and a larger engine was fitted, together with a specially designed transfer gearbox. The Land Rover will enter production in 1946.

Land Rover Advert for production model

The Standard Motor Company’s stand focused on the newly introduced Vanguard family car. The Triumph 1800 (also called the Town & Country Saloon) is the first car to carry the Triumph badge following the company's takeover by the Standard Motor Company and will be sold next year. The car is distinctively styled with Razor Edge coachwork which is a six light (three side windows on each side) design, the thin C pillars offer increased window areas and the car's side profile resembles that of the Bentley saloons. The aluminium body is built by Mulliners of Birmingham. The 1776 cc, 65hp engine and the gearbox is from the Standard Flying Fourteen. The chassis is fabricated from tubular steel and is a lengthened 108 inch Roadster chassis, the transverse leaf spring front suspension also coming from the Roadster. The cars will feature leather seats and a wooden dashboard and the price will be around £1,425 including tax.

Standard Vanguard

Quoted

Roger Keyes was born on 4 October 1872, in Burma where his father commanded the Burmese Frontier force. He spent his first five years here but, despite being far from the sea, he told his parents "I am going to be an Admiral". Keyes remained in Britain and attended a preparatory school at Margate. After some discussion and, against his father's wishes, Roger was permitted to join the Royal Navy, joining the training establishment HMS Britannia in the autumn of 1884, at the age of 12.
In August 1887, Keyes was appointed to the full rigged sailing frigate HMS Raleigh, which was flagship of the West Africa Station. In 1890, Keyes transferred to HMS Turquoise, a barque rigged corvette, operated from Zanzibar on slavery suppression missions. There was much opportunity for action as small naval launches under junior officers were sent out for weeks at a time to patrol the coast, probing the estuaries and creeks where Arab slavers hid with their cargoes of young women and children, seized from coastal regions. He participated in the 1890 expedition against the Sultan of Wituland. Keyes returned to England and was attached to various ships in the Channel Fleet, including a service aboard the royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert. He met Queen Victoria and the future King George V. In October 1892, Keyes went to South America for service on HMS Beagle, remaining in South American waters until 1896. This was a very happy time in his life, as he had plenty of opportunity for polo and shooting in Argentina and Grand Uruguay, where he was made very welcome by the local British residents. He thought of settling in Argentina, but the lady of whom he was enamoured chose another. The early part of Keyes' tour was spent mostly in Brazil where a Royal Navy squadron was busy protecting British shipping and residents during an 1893–94 naval insurrection against President Floriano Peixoto. During the course of his duties, he became friendly with a rebel leader, Rear Admiral Saldanha da Gama.

After his return home, Keyes served on a training ship for new recruits. He was then given command of HMS Opossum, a new destroyer. Keyes was then posted out to China to command another destroyer, HMS Hart, soon transferring to a newer ship, HMS Fame. In April 1899, he went to the rescue of a small British force which was attacked and surrounded by irregular Chinese forces while attempting to demarcate the border of the Hong Kong New Territories. Keyes went ashore, leading half the landing party, and, while Fame fired on the besiegers, he led the charge which routed the Chinese and freed the troops. Reports soon started to come in to British authorities of disturbances throughout North China, aimed particularly against Chinese Christians, missionaries and European merchants. The anti-foreign agitators were called Boxers, and soon were threatening the foreign legations in Peking (Beijing) and the European settlement at Tientsin (Tianjin). Local British naval forces were sent to the aid of these two threatened communities. Both cities were inland, Tientsin some 30 miles up the shallow river Pei Ho (Hai River), and Peking some 60 miles further inland and only destroyers could, at high tide, get over the bar and into the Pei Ho. The mouth of the river was defended by three modern Chinese forts (the Taku Forts), whose gunners were trained by Europeans.

Keyes arrived off Taku in HMS Fame on 31 May 1900, with the whole squadron coming in two days later. Since Fame drew only 8 feet of water and could cross the bar into Taku during four hours of high tide twice per day, she was used to take messages and passengers back and forth to the railhead. As a result, Keyes became familiar with navigation on the lower stretches of the river. At this point he was able to pass the forts unmolested, though the Chinese gunners trained their guns on his ship. The British commander, Admiral Edward Seymour, visited Tientsin on 3 June, and alarmed, ordered a small naval brigade to its aid. Fame was busy ferrying the troops upriver, past the forts. At the same time, a desperate message arrived from Peking requesting immediate help. Admiral Seymour took a huge gamble and set out by train for Peking from Tientsin in June with 1,000 British sailors and marines. Naval ships of other countries whose nationals were besieged in Peking contributed sailors as well, and soon the Admiral commanded a mixed force of 1,990 British, German, French, Russian, American, Italian, and Austrian sailors. Then the telegraph line to Peking went dead, and Boxers began tearing up the railway track in front of and behind the train well before Peking. Seymour was now in a dangerous situation. Keyes, though a junior officer, began to show once again the foresight and leadership which so characterized his career. He determined that the capture of the Taku forts and the seizure of the Chinese destroyers was the key to the relief of Tientsin and Peking. With another junior officer, Commander Christopher Craddock, he made a land reconnaissance of the forts on 13 June to discover the best line of attack. On 15 June, Keyes was sent by Admiral James Bruce, acting commander, overland to Tientsin to find out the state of defences and what had happened to Admiral Seymour and his force. He reported to the local British commander, Captain Bayly and his second in command, Commander David Beatty. Bayly reported Seymour's precarious situation and urged Keyes to make it back to Admiral Bruce as quickly as possible to persuade him to seize the Taku forts. Keyes borrowed a revolver and commandeered a locomotive, bribed the engineer and fireman and set off. When they approached a station en route, they saw that the platform was covered with Chinese soldiers. The railway men lost courage and slowed down, until Keyes put his revolver to the engineer's temple, and they steamed through the trouble. When returning to the ship, he learned that the Chinese had laid mines in the river channel that afternoon. With some difficulty, Keyes persuaded Bruce of the need to seize the destroyers and the forts.

At an international naval gathering next morning, it was agreed to issue an ultimatum to the Chinese commander to hand over the forts temporarily to the Europeans. Should the demands not be agreed to, Keyes was given the task of seizing the destroyers at 2 am the next morning with an attack on the forts to follow at daybreak. Keyes scouted the Chinese ships in a lighter before the ultimatum expired, and developed a detailed plan to storm the ships and seize them intact. The plan was simple. Each British destroyer had a boarding party on its forecastle armed with pistols and cutlasses, led by its captain, to seize the first and third destroyers and another boarding party in a whaler towed behind, led by the executive officer to seize the second and fourth ships. But at 1 am the Chinese forts opened fire. Keyes immediately put his plan into action and, under the cover of nightfall, all went off like clockwork. He then led a sortie ashore and captured the dry dock, dispersing snipers. His orders were to take the captured ships to Tongku, which he did. Keyes then escorted a river tug with stores and ammunition for the besieged troops in Tientsin pas the fort at Hsi-cheng armed with six modern 6 inch, quick-fire guns. By the time he got back to Taku, the three forts had been taken. Keyes led the attack against Hsi-cheng, loading the Fame with as many armed men as he could, anchored on an ebb tide off the fort and sheered into the bank. He sprang ashore, followed by a landing party of 32, armed with rifles, pistols, cutlasses and explosives. Surprise was complete, the main door of the fort was open, and a party of Chinese inside was scattered. The sailors quickly destroyed the gun mountings, and blew up the powder magazine, fleeing back to the ship in the nick of time. The same day, 25 June 1900, Admiral Seymour managed to fight his way back into Tientsin. After all his exploits, Keyes still managed to get himself into the thick of fighting throughout the rest of the campaign. He managed to obtain leave from the Fame for two days to run a tug and lighter with stores to Tientsin. While there, he joined an attack on some Chinese batteries at the Tientsin race course, being very impressed by the Japanese troops who led it. Keyes also accompanied an old friend of his father, General Sir Alfred Gaselee as a naval aide-de-camp on Gaslee’s military expedition. So it came to be that Keyes was the first man over the Peking walls, planting a Union Jack on the top. He was also the first to break through to the legations. For his bravery during the Boxer Rebellion, Lieutenant Keyes was promoted to the rank of Commander.

After some time to convalesce from diphtheria, Keyes resumed command of HMS Fame, and returned to Hong Kong through a dreadful typhoon. He was transferred home. After a few months leave Keyes was appointed to command a new destroyer, HMS Bat, stationed at Portsmouth and was second in command of the Devonport Destroyer Flotilla. The ships under his command did very well in naval exercises leading to an appointment at the Admiralty in the intelligence section. The time back in England enabled Keyes to pursue his passion for polo, a recreation at which he made the acquaintance of Winston Churchill. In early 1905, Keyes took up an appointment as naval attaché at Rome, Vienna, Constantinople and Athens, with his office at the British Embassy in Rome. On 10 April 1906, he married Eva Bowlby. They honeymooned on the Dalmatian coast and the Greek Isles. In January 1908, Keyes took up command of HMS Venus, a second class cruiser serving with the Atlantic Fleet. In 1910, Keyes was looking forward to command of an armoured cruiser, when he was offered the appointment of Inspecting Captain of Submarines which he accepted. Though the position was initially regarded as a training role, Keyes's energy led it to become an operational command in 1912. Keyes saw the worsening international situation in late July 1914 and cancelled all leave for his men. He moved his vessels and headquarters to Harwich to be closer to Germany and was ready for war when it broke out on 4 August 1914.

When Great War broke out, Keyes took command of the submarine force at Harwich. These submarines were involved in the first Battle of Heligoland Bight, in August 1914. As Naval Chief of Staff to Vice-Admiral Sackville Carden, commander of the Royal Navy squadron off the Dardanelles during early 1915, Commodore Keyes was heavily involved in the organisation of the Dardanelles Campaign. He volunteered to take charge of a minesweeping operation intended to clear the way for the bombarding ships more than once. After the heartbreak of the Dardanelles operation, Keyes applied for a transfer back to the Grand Fleet. He was in Salonika finishing up when news arrived of the Battle of Jutland. He returned to England immediately and took command of the battleship HMS Centurion assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron. He was promoted Rear-Admiral on 10 April 1917. In June he was made second in command of the 4th Battle Squadron, under Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee. He flew his flag aboard HMS Colossus, who’s Captain was Dudley Pound.

On 1 January 1918, Keyes took over command Channel Command. In 1919, he was given command of the Battlecruiser Squadron, hoisting his flag at Scapa Flow in HMS Lion. By 1920, he was flying his flag in the new HMS Hood. In 1921 Keyes became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. His war services were rewarded by making him a baronet and giving him an award of £10,000. In May 1925, Keyes took up a three-year appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Many commentators hold that this fleet achieved its peak of efficiency under the restless direction of Keyes. In May 1929, Keyes took up the position of Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, the most important Home Command, but he was very disappointed not to be made First Sea Lord in 1930. His appointment as Admiral of the Fleet came on 8 May 1930. He hauled down his flag at Portsmouth on 9 June 1931 which ended his last naval command. Keyes and his wife bought a country home at Tingewick, near Buckingham, close to good fox hunting. Sir Roger Keyes was elected Member of Parliament for North Portsmouth as a Conservative in January 1934. He served in the House of Commons until raised to the peerage as Baron Keyes of Dover in January 1943.
Sir Keyes funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey.