WesWorld

1 January
The coal industry is officially nationalised today under the control of the National Coal Board, the numerous municipal and privately owned electricity generation and supply utilities in Great Britain are also nationalised under the control of the British Electricity Authority with fifteen area electricity boards and the government also nationalises Cable & Wireless Ltd.

The NCB has acquired 958 collieries, the property of about 800 companies. Compensation of £164.6 million will be paid to the owners for the collieries and £78.5 million to former owners for other assets such as 55 coke ovens, 85 brickworks and 20 smokeless fuel plants. The board also takes over power stations at some collieries and railway sidings. It manages more than 140,000 houses and more than 200,000 acres of farmland and employs nearly 800,000 workers, about four percent of Britain's total workforce. The headquarters of the Board have been established in Hobart House, London. The collieries it has acquired vary considerably in size and output, the average pit produced 245,000 tons annually. More than a third of collieries produce less than 100,000 tons and fifty collieries produce more than 700,000 tons. Initial plans foresee investments of £550 million annually on major improvements and new sinkings, much of it to mechanise the mining process underground. The aim is to produce the cheapest coal in Europe by 1955.

2 January
British coins being minted from today will cease to include any silver content.

Quoted from "Hood"

2 January
British coins being minted from today will cease to include any silver content.

Other than reflecting historical fact, does this move have a particular driver behind it in Wesworld?

No doubt they need every ounce of silver in the entire British Empire for some elaborate and ridiculously expensive gifts to the British monarch so there won't be any silver left to use in coins for the next 50 years or so.

Quoted from "Rooijen10"

No doubt they need every ounce of silver in the entire British Empire for some elaborate and ridiculously expensive gifts to the British monarch so there won't be any silver left to use in coins for the next 50 years or so. :)

Droll, very droll Walter... :rolleyes:

I'm not of the reason OTL, I know silver percentages had been reduced to 50% in 1920. I suspect it was due to cost at the time. Maundy Money is the only exception to this.
I suspect there was little point putting precious metals into coins anyhow by this period, its not as if a nation's wealth is confirmed by the amount of gold and silver it can circulate in circular pocket-sized form.

Britain, and much of northern Europe, is in the grip of one of the worst winters on record.
The winter began with two periods of cold weather in December and January, but the coldest period began on 21 January. The weather in fact, had turned unseasonably mild for a time; on 15 January the temperature in Leeming, North Yorkshire, didn't fall below 11.7°C, and rose to 14°C the next day in parts of Norfolk, Herefordshire, and Flintshire. However, an area of high pressure transferred north, from France, on 18 January and two days later, the anticyclone was centred over North -West Scandinavia. This high pressure area blocked the progression of low pressure depressions across the Atlantic Ocean and forced them to the south of the United Kingdom resulting in strong easterly winds, which brought snow to Eastern England and South East England before progressing across the entire country. This cold spell continued and by 30 January the Isles of Scilly were under 7 inches (18 cm) of snow and the overnight temperature at Writtle, Essex, fell to −20 °C. Over January the highest recorded temperature in England and Wales was 14 °C and the minimum was −21 °C.


British troops clearing snowdrifts from a railway line in Northern England

5 January
HMS Crossbow ploughed through the waves of the North Atlantic. Trying to keep tabs on the German taskforce heading east, the new destroyer was being tested against the elements. The first flush-decked destroyer design for several decades, the extra hull strength was welcome as the ship rode the peaks and troughs of the waves and her after decks remained reasonably dry for a ship of her size. Lt. Commander. Wilson was pleased with his ship, but the crew trying to maintain a footing as they worked, or trying to get some rest off watch, would not agree.

9 January
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Dalton, made a speech in Birmingham at the Confederation of British Industries during which he touched upon the recent weakening of the Pound.
"The present problem is that of speculators who wish to believe the Pound is weak so they can make a profit on trading. The Pound is still strong, the Bank of England today has released the latest monthly figures for December 1946 which shows inflation to be steady and there will be no change in interest rates at the present time. Contrary to the views of some, the government is not panicking about the value of the Pound. Indeed a slightly lower value against our competitors makes British exports cheaper and increases demand. To those worried by the Borrowing (Control and Guarantees) Act, let me remind that the aim of this was to safeguard investments and prevent wild speculative investments which too often fail and leave shareholders out of pocket and the Treasury footing the bill. The effects of the Act have not been as harsh as some have portrayed in the press and all too often State investment has proven most welcome given its largesse and solid backing. The government has no hesitation in relaxing private investments when the time is ripe. Current state investment in motorways, new town and new industrial enterprises are building a modern transport infrastructure, relieving the worst of slum conditions and providing the skilled worker with good housing and new, modern premises for light industry."

10 January
An explosion at Burngrange oil shale mine at West Calder, Scotland has killed 15 miners.

14 January
The Bombing Trials Unit at RAF West Freugh has become the Air Armament Trials Establishment under the control of the Royal Aircraft Establishment.

15 January
News of Generalmajor Reinhard Gehlen's new post filtered through the intelligence agencies of the world. In London, a keenly interested party was pawing over his biography. Control sat behind his desk with his main Circus man on the Western European desk.

Control read aloud the document; "Hmmmm, born 3rd March 1902, Roman Catholic family, joined the Reichswehr in 1920, graduated from the Staff College in 1935 and then attached to Army General Staff. Remained there until 1939, then promoted to Major, then staff officer of an infantry division, the promoted again to liaison officer to the Army Commander-in-Chief. Ah, here is the interesting bit, July 1941 promoted to Lieutenant Colonel assigned to General Staff section Fremde Heere West as a senior intelligence officer. Took command of FHW in spring 1942. All very dry, tell me about the man."

The head of research spoke up, reading from another buff file; "He is a hard-working officer, known to be unforgiving to those who fail to come up to his exacting standards. He reorganised the FHW, methodically finding the right personnel, our sources indicate he scoured the army personnel files, searching for linguists, geographers, anthropologists, lawyers and junior officers. He looks for those who meet his expectations and favours intellectuals, especially those with energy. He built up a new organisation that prides itself on its high quality information."

Control sat back in his chair and thought. "So, he is an exacting military man, by the book sort. That sort can be inflexible for the kind of work intelligence organs do. He has six year's in the business, mainly on gathering information and I've no doubt he knows how to get results and seek information. On the other hand he lacks the experience of bread and butter networks, he might prove to be too technical and miss the small details that make up the full picture. But let's not underestimate Gehlen, he could certainly build the Abwehr into a very effective organisation indeed. I forsee a very interesting future ahead."

Works were heavily delayed by the severe winter weather between January-April.

New Sections of Motorway opening this year (labelled by prospective Junction numbers):
J4-8 (Lydiate Ash – Strensham), the first section of the M5 motorway
Stafford Bypass, the J13-14 section of the M6 motorway
J14-15 (Stafford Bypass – Hanchurch) and J15-16 (Hanchurch – Barthomley) sections of the M6
Stevenage Bypass, the J6-8 section of the A1(M) dual-carriageway to motorway standards
J1-6 (Belfast – Lisburn) – the first section of the Belfast and Dungannon M1 motorway, the first such road to be built in Northern Ireland



New sections of Motorway beginning construction this year (labelled by prospective Junction numbers):
J1-2 Ringway 1 – Westhorne Avenue section (including the Kidbrooke Interchange with the A20 & M20) of the new M2 motorway. The M2 is to carry traffic from London to the Channel Ports, bypassing several congested parts of the A2.
J6-9 Medway Bridge – Stockbury section of the M2.
J1-2 Ringway 1 – Eltham section (including the Kidbrooke Interchange with the M2) of the new M20 motorway. The M20 will carry traffic from London to Folkestone.
1948 J2-3 Eltham Road - Mottingham interchange section of the M20.
J5-7 Slough - Maidenhead Bypass section of the M4
J16-20 Barthomley – Warrington section of the M6
J20-29 Warrington - Preston section of the M6
J6-7 Lisburn – Sprucefield section of the Belfast and Dungannon M1 motorway

London North Eastern Railway have begun electrifying their last major line, the West Anglia/ Fen Line. This work should be completed by 1950 and next year work will begin on electrifying the Mayflower Line.

25 January
A Douglas DC-3 airliner of the Philippine airline, PAL, has crashed at Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong. The aircraft struck Mount Parker during its landing approach to Kai Tak Airport. There were four fatalities in the incident and an investigation has begun into the circumstances and cause of the accident.

26 January
Irgun members in Palestine have kidnaped a British intelligence officer two days before the planned deportation of the Irgun member Dov Gruner. The High Commissioner has called for calm, and the government issued a statement firmly reiterating their intention to deport Dov Gruner.

27 January
Irgun members have carried out another raid, this time kidnapping the British President of the district court of Tel Aviv. Security forces are on high alert and roadblocks and checkpoints have been established.

In OOC curiosity, whence would Gruner be deported?

Uhm... Looking at wiki, perhaps Hell?

Quoted from "Rooijen10"

Uhm... Looking at wiki, perhaps Hell? :)

That was why I asked... perhaps the Irgun kidnappings will result in a disposition other than deportation. And it begs the question what nation might be willing to accept him. Hungary? I don't know - perhaps Colonel Homlok does.

I expect there would be quite a few.

Well, Britain could easily get rid of such troublemakers in Japan. There are many, many islands in the region were he can be deported to.

22 January
Several roads in Kent have become impassable due to heavy snowfall. Ploughs were eventually able to clear most of the main roads, but further snowfall is forecast.

25 January
The RAF has suspended all non-operational and essential flying from its aerodromes owing to heavy snow and drifts. Several Transport Command aircraft are on stand-by to airdrop supplies to remote northern communities, including hay for animals stranded on the Pennine slopes. The Ministry of Transport has pledged to keep open the main airports, but several smaller municipal airports have now closed.

28 January
The Army has released 14,000 soldiers for snow clearance work across the country, especially to keep main roads and railways open. Hardware stores are reporting record sales of spades and digging tools and portable heaters.

30 January
Downe in the London Borough of Bromley has recorded almost a foot of snow since the 24th. Widecombe in Dartmoor today recorded 10.5 inches of snow and at East Anstey on Exmoor 9 inches has fallen in what locals have observed has been the heaviest fall for at least twenty years.

Quoted from "BruceDuncan"

In OOC curiosity, whence would Gruner be deported?

Probably to some distant corner of the Empire where he can do little harm and where the authorities can keep eyes on him.
I keep meaning to post some more meaningful stuff on Palestine and get some form of functioning state going. Britain can't afford to keep getting dragged through the mud forever and its not as if the League of Nations has been especially grateful for British actions there. Matters have to come to a head, but might have to wait until I have some scripting time.

February

The harsh winter weather continues. The easterly winds continue, February has developed into one of the coldest months on record. At Kew Observatory there was no recorded temperature above 5 °C for the month and only twice was the overnight temperature above 0 °C. Nationally, levels of sun recorded were less than half the average and no sun at all was recorded at Kew for twenty days from 2 February. On 20 February the ferry service across the English Channel between Dover and Ostend was suspended due to pack ice off the Belgian coast. In some places snow has fallen 26 days out of 28 in the month and a temperature of −21 °C was recorded at Woburn, Bedfordshire on 25 February.




As a result, railways have been badly affected by drifts of light powdery snow and 300 main roads were made unusable. Several hundred villages are cut off and ice floes were also seen off the coast of East Anglia, causing a hazard to shipping. This cold weather has caused a fuel problem as stockpiles of coal at the pits and depots froze solid and could not be moved. This was made worse with roads out of use and 750,000 railway wagons of coal were trapped by the snow. Desperate attempts were made to get fuel to power stations by coal-carrying ships which risked storms, fog and ice to reach their destination. 100,000 troops were put to work clearing snow from the railways by hand and even jet engines rigged to railway waggons were used as improvised snow blowers.
Despite this, lack of fuel forced many power stations to shut down or reduce their output. The Royal Navy launched Operation Blackcurrant, which used diesel generators aboard submarines to provide supplementary power to coastal towns and dockyards. Power Minister Shinwell acted to reduce consumption of coal by reducing the electricity supply to industry and reducing the domestic supply to 19 hours per day across the country. In consequence many factories across the country were forced to shut and up to four million people claimed unemployment benefits. Television services were suspended completely and radio broadcasts were reduced. Despite Shinwell's actions the fuel supply remained insufficient and blackouts occurred across large swathes of the country. The public was reduced to queuing at gasworks to collect coke for use as fuel. Supplies of aspirin also ran low as it is then a product of coal-tar, thousands of chickens in poultry farms died of the cold, and public transport services were cut to save fuel or simply unable to run due to the snow. Shinwell became increasingly unpopular with the general public and received a bomb threat which meant that he had to be guarded at his house in Tooting by four policemen. By 27 February sea conditions had improved and more than 100 coal ships had managed to unload their cargoes at the power stations, easing the fuel crisis.

Many winter root vegetables could not be harvested as they were frozen into the ground, and in some areas pneumatic drills were used to excavate them. In addition the frost destroyed 70,000 tons of potatoes.
Because of the anticyclone to the north of the United Kingdom several incoming Atlantic depressions which would normally have hit Britain were forced south to the Mediterranean region, resulting in Portugal, Spain and Southern France having more rain than usual while remaining relatively warm. For example the February rainfall at Gibraltar was 9.3 inches (240 mm), three times the normal February average.

Now introducing the Fourth Horseman of the Snowpocalypse...

Russia: "We do not understand. This report, it say you have bad winter, but −21° C temperature like crisp morning! What is problem? Just hibernate, like bear! Pack ice in Channel? Pshaw, have spare icebreaker, will loan to Great British Navy."

Ireland: "We want to take this opportunity to make fun of the British, but we're too cold and snow-bound to think anything up..."

Chile (on beach, drinking something with an umbrella): "I'd try a hemisphere joke, but..."

Quoted

Russia: "We do not understand. This report, it say you have bad winter, but −21° C temperature like crisp morning! What is problem? Just hibernate, like bear! Pack ice in Channel? Pshaw, have spare icebreaker, will loan to Great British Navy."

Yes, the Russians make holes in the ice on the lakes and swim in them at those temperatures.

Quoted

Ireland: "We want to take this opportunity to make fun of the British, but we're too cold and snow-bound to think anything up..."

Shouldn't they prepare their armies to invade Britain in case the Irish sea freezes?

Quoted

Chile (on beach, drinking something with an umbrella): "I'd try a hemisphere joke, but..."

I tried to come up with a comment on this one, but...

Quoted

Shouldn't they prepare their armies to invade Britain in case the Irish sea freezes?

That can be a two-edged sword.

Worked well enough for the French at Den Helder and Charles X at Copenhagen. We Germans have learned a lesson or two about fighting on ice, and choose to avoid it if possible.