WAR SECRETS THAT WERE KEPT IN BRITAIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 304, 23 December 1944, Page 8

WAR SECRETS THAT WERE KEPT IN BRITAIN

'THOSE of you who were in the last * war may remember those posters in the French estaminets, "Taisezvous, mefiez-vous! Les oreilles enneemies vous ecoutent!" "Shut up! Be on your guard! Enemy ears are listening!" Well, ours in Britain are not quite so direct, but they're effective. Most of them are humorous in their appeal, and they have comic strips to attract attention and to help them to stay in your mind pictuies of Hitler and Goebbels listening under the table or from behind a chair. But there are some which strike a crim note —pictures of blazing anci sinking ships, or bombed factories, as a result of somebody talking. Then there's the famous one with a picture of a Naval officer looking ahead from the bridge of a ship, and the caption, "He's in the Silent Service. Are you?" It's not that the public has any inclination to give away secrets to the enemy. You don't see warnings splashed about reminding us of the heavy penalties provided by the law. It's "careless talk" that we're warned about. And it's a good job that the public have this self-discipline, which can only be strong in a free country. We don't need - any Gestapo to keep our people's mouths shut. Take the instance of the launching and the sailing of the Queen Elizabeth. Not only the shipyard workers, the stevedores, the seamen knew, but thousands of people along the banks: of the Clyde knew. But the enemy didn't get to know. That huge ship crossed the Atlantic in perfect secrecy. It has sometimes been described as "The best kept secret of the war." But bigger secrets have been kept since them, Dday, for examole. Some of them were only known to a few, but others were shared by thousands of men and women. I'm going to mention some which are no longer secret. V

The Flame-throwers Take the latest example of surprise sprung on the enemy by something produced in secrecy—the latest, that is, that can be told and talked about — the flame-throwers, "The Crocodile," "The Wasp," "The Lifebuoy." The earliest experiments began as far back as the summer of 1940, when in secret the Petroleum Warfare Department was formed with Mr. Churchill's approval. Although in the later stages it was shared by many workpeople engaged in their production, it will probably rank as one of the best kept secrets of the war. Some of the workpeople in the later stages, under a pledge of secrecy, saw results of their work by means of films and demonstrations, and they responded to the final call for a last-lap spurt for D-day. But although in the early stages the working men and women were not told what they were making— only a few officials knew —many of them must have made a pretty shrewd guess. Then those workers oh the assembly line — they were bound to know something. But nobody breathed a word. The first the Germans knew about it was when the flame-throwers burned through Hitler's Atlantic Wall. Terrorstricken German "supermen" broke and ran. Those who stayed were burned. Those who ran were killed by the infantry when a Scottish regiment used the Crocodiles to scorch out the enemy from a strongly entrenched position. Those Crocodiles belch out a flame jet 150 yards long.

Mine Detectors Another well-kept secret was the Bailey bridge. A tremendous number of workpeople knew about it in the factories. Then there was the mine detector. In this case it was impossible to produce it without the workers knowing what they were making, so they were brought together and taken into the confidence of the officials. They kept their mouths shut. And we got through Rommel's minefields in North Africa at a speed which took that wily fox by surprise. Then there was the Sten gun— and the old Smith gun which, although it had been issued to the Home Guard, was still kept secret. All the Home Guard used it, but kept their mouths shut. To come to more recent times, there were the wading tanks. On the Normandy shores the Germans were amazed to see tanks wading through the water. They don't know yet how it was done. A very large number of people were in on that secret. There were workers in the Ministry of Supply factories and "Rennies" in ordnance depot—quite apart from our troops—who know how it was done. Then there was the airborne tank. The secret of that must have been shared by very many workpeople over a period of nearly three years. There were those who made the tank and those who made the glider. If- they hadn't been told they could guess from the size of the tank and the dimensions of the glider what it was for.

By WILLIAM HOLT

There are two lines of approach to this problem of producing weapons in secrecy. Either you can split the job up into so many pieces and spread it out all over the country until it is unrecognisable and it's impossible for anyone to guess what they are making. Or, where this isn't possible, you can get the workers together and say: "This is secret work—you mustn't talk." The secret of the two new tanks — the Cromwell and the 17-pounder Sherman—was kept by the Army and workers in the factories. A large number of workers were assembling Cromwells in complete secrecy, and those workers who were putting the 17-pounder into the Sherman knew that secret. But not only did the Army and factory workers keep the secret. Later, when many of these tanks were seen in the English countryside, members of the public who saw them kept their mouths shut. Think what secrets some of our village folk on the south coast knew before the beginning of the liberation of Europe, from what they saw from their back gardens or their front door. In aircraft, the developed Rolls Royce Merlin engine, which was fitted to our Spitfires and Hurricanes, won the "Battle of Britain' and saved democracy. At first the enemy topped us with his M.E.109, but power at altitude was achieved by Britain, surprising the Germans. And here's a case of secrets shared with America. Lord Beaverbrook, who was then Minister of Aircraft Production, in 1940, sent to America four Merlin engines to Packards. A Packard-produced Rolls Royce Merlin engine was eventually fitted to the Mustang. British engine secrets have been shared with America, too; and jet propulsion. Our, gyro gun sight, which has doubled the lethal power of British aircraft, has also been made available to America. The production of this complicated invention was kept secret by spreading the various parts over a large number of factories. Only the managements knew what they were making. But in the case of other air secrets, such as the rocket projectiles in the early activities of the Beaufighters and the devastating Typhoons, it wasn't possible to do this. The secret was known from the ordinary worker right up to the chairman of the company—and kept by them. And There Are Others On the production front in wartime Britain an amazing number of secrets have been well kept by many. This "caginess" of the factory workers, the transport workers, the seamen, the caution of the public, the observation of security measures by the fighting services, is a big contribution to the victories we have been winning. I've been writing about secrets which are now out —some of the best-kept secrets of the war—but whether any particular one will rank as the best when the final victory comes, remains to be seen. There's a lot of stuff in use that the enemy doesn't know about yet—B.B.C. Press Service.