“The Air Corps is crating up the 110 Hawk 81s built to French specifications now and we’ll be shipping them to India and South Africa. They’ve named them the Tomahawk I, by the way. Meanwhile, Captain Chennault is organizing the expansion of the Chinese air forces in an effort to reduce Japanese expansionism in China. He will be purchasing newly-built P40B aircraft and also recruiting pilots for the Chinese. If his plans hold true, those aircraft will be in service by the end of the year.” Secretary Stimson looked around with satisfaction. He was clearing his airfields of the ex-British and French aircraft before he was forced to take them into USAAC service.
“We’ve heard from the Commonwealth governments on the 140 British Hawk 81s. They’re calling them Tomahawk IIs. They’ve agreed amongst themselves that they are to be delivered to the Middle East. Forty aircraft, are to go to Kenya and will equip two South African fighter squadrons. The other one hundred will go to Egypt and equip two British, one Australian and one Indian squadron.” Cordell Hull also looked very happy. The war was still on and the prospect of disaster that had seemed so imminent earlier had receded dramatically. The Italian invasion of Egypt had stalled at Sidi Barrani and the British forces in Egypt were gathering to expel them. Even more significantly, the rest of the Commonwealth was funnelling reinforcements to East Africa and the Middle East.
Stimson sounded enthusiastic. “It makes sense the way they’ve done it. Give them a few weeks and they’ll have a major edge in both the Middle East and East Africa while they use the ex-French aircraft to train new pilots and work up new squadrons. Any news on the rest?”
“There’s a conference in Jamaica that’ll sort all the other issues out. Main issue remains the Hawk 75s, the DB-7 bombers and the Hudson patrol planes. They’re squabbling over those. How goes the industry side of this, Phillip?”
“Not bad.” Stuyvesant consulted a file. “Bill Pawley is setting up an aircraft factory in India, using machine tooling the manufacturers here are replacing. The Canadians are already building Bolingbrokes, that’s a version of the Blenheim, and the Australians Beaufort torpedo bombers.”
“Our factories are reequipping? We need those production lines running.” Hull was confused.
“We’ll get them going soon. We need them reequipped now though so we won’t have to do it later when we’re straining for output. And, all those extra orders for machine tools get those lines running as well. By the way, the British also placed orders for P-38s and P-39s. Bell and Lockheed want to know whether to start work on them.”
Stimson shook his head. “Not now. We need those aircraft. It’s one thing to get rid of aircraft we’ve already built; quite another to divert future building capacity. We’ve got a problem with Japan and we’ll have to address it. They’ll come after us sooner or later.”
Cordell Hull shook his head. “We’re not interested in having a war in the Pacific. As far as the President is concerned, he regards Germany as being our primary enemy.”
“The problem with that attitude is that it only takes one side to start a war. If Japan wants to have a war with us, we don’t need to agree with them about it; they’ll come straight at us.” Stimson sounded grim. “The Philippines will be hit first, you mark my words.”
“Then we had better make sure that our defenses there are up to par. Can we send additional aircraft to defend Luzon? And extra troops?”
“We’d better. We can shift some of the new production we’re generating there within a few months.”
Stuyvesant looked up at the ceiling. “You know, it’s just possible Halifax has done us a big favor. If he hadn’t folded back in June, we wouldn’t be mobilizing the way we are now. And that means we’re going to have a lot more forces available a lot sooner. It might just be enough to persuade the Japanese that moving against us won’t be worth the effort. Of course, the more allies we have out in that part of the world, the better.”
“Hot run over the Atlantic, Bob?”
“Some aggro with Kondors early on, but apart from that, easy trip. The doggies were glad to get off though and we were glad to get rid of them. They threw up in places we never knew existed. Parts of the ship still stink.” Captain Stewart wrinkled his nose in disgust at the memory. Driving a heavy cruiser fast through the North Atlantic was a sure guarantee of a rough ride and the Canadian infantry on board had suffered from acute, universal seasickness. Then, his crew had barely had time to unload the equipment they’d carried over and clean ship before the Canadian delegates had arrived for the trip down to Jamaica.
The harbor was well-stocked with warships. In addition to Australia, there were three other British cruisers, Frobisher, Emerald and Enterprise. Then there were six old British destroyers, Admiralty S-class fitted out as minelayers. Finally, in the middle of the harbor was an American heavy cruiser, the Houston. Stewart reflected that she was probably the only ship in the harbor that knew exactly who she belonged to. Across in the flying boat basin, the group was completed by the two anchored aircraft that had brought the Australian, Indian and South African delegations. Stewart was proud of the fact that the Australians had flown in, even if they had arrived in a Short S-23 rather than the larger S-26 used by the Indians.
“We’ve found a home.” Captain Roderick Glynn entered the bar and sounded pleased. As well he might; the status of West Indies Station and the ships that were based there had been indeterminate for all too long. “The Governor-General has announced that the West Indies will follow the example set by Australia, Canada, India and South Africa and continue the state of hostilities that exists with Germany. The warships of West India Station will govern themselves accordingly. Them’s our orders.”
“What really happened, Rod?” Glynn’s father was a senior civil servant in the Jamaican government and it was presumed that the Captain of HMS Frobisher had his ear to the ground.
Glynn looked around to make sure nobody other than the Royal Navy Captains were present. “You might not know this, but there’s a lot of discussion been going on about the future out here. Basically, London wants all the West Indies assembled into a federation that can then be given Dominion status. That’s not popular because the rich trading islands believe that they’ll end up subsidizing the poorer fishing ones. Since the existing administration is run by sugar planters and banana merchants, that argument carries a lot of weight. So, there was a Royal Commission appointed to examine the situation and come up with a workable solution.
“Well, they did. The problem is the disparity of development spread across the islands that makes up the West Indies. So, invest money in the development of the poorer islands, bring them up to the standard of the rest and the objections to Federation go away. So, the Royal Commission recommended that a grant of five million pounds a year be made from the Colonial Development Fund for that purpose. Just for good measure, they tossed in an extra half million a year for research into the development of viable industries.
“So far, so good. Only when the results of the Royal Commission were due to be released in the House, Butler announced that the whole report was being kept secret and we were told that the promised funds would only be made available if we stuck to the London line. If we didn’t, we could go and whistle for the money. Of course, that went down like the proverbial lead balloon.”
Glynn shook his head. “You know, if they’d done that quietly and privately, they’d probably have got away with it. But, announcing it in the House? There was no way the planters would allow it. Clem Attlee said just that in the House, of course, and much good it did anybody. Anyway, the West Indies are in, and there’s the funny thing. Those Yanks who are ‘observers’ here? They were last seen heading in to the GGs office.