By Quentin Cockburn
RN Official Image
As you can see this is much smaller than the Japanese submarine. There are only two crew members, Commander Tony and his mate Peta. The internal workings were a refinement upon the Japanese. You can see we have the commanders cupola, and engineers radio operator position. This was a first being of plywood construction to save on precious resources, and the auxillary Austral Villiers engine for surface-cruising was augmented by this schnorkel device we adapted in our workshops. Bicycle parts were used for ease of maintenance and the pressure hull, reinforced to contain explosive gasses. We also trialled a unique communications system the Electro Impulse activator, or commonly known as the ‘Electorate’. Commander Tony and Peta, though in spite of repeated attempts to influence their viewpoints on direction, delegation and imagination, (commanders need imagination,) were impervious to external influences and that is perhaps why it was stranded when it inadvertently travelled up the main sewer outfall at Frankston. Both the commander and his lieutenant survived and upon rescue it was claimed: ‘Still Alive!’, though ‘no other visible signs of life detected in Frankston’!
We had originally envisaged a crew of seven. As that was the complement at Ashtons.
And we soon discovered that five; Dopey, Sneezey, Grumpy, Droopey, and ‘Hockey’ were unsuited to confinement.
As you can see the access hatch and access through the main control tower is very small. After considerable training in the art of climbing in and out of suitably arranged agricultural piping, the largest dwarf “Hockey” became incapacitated. He led a revolt of sorts amongst the troupe and only the most hard of hearing were unnaffected, little Tony and his sidekick Peta. We had great confidence in the encounter but unfortunately due to an inadvertent translation error the control mechanism was not operable until we had replaced the forward control mechanism directive, ‘Hari Kiri’, with ‘Surface’, though the engineers did inadvertently install the rotating swords mechanism. Tragically this error killed all but Hockey. Eventually then the two outstanding candidates, Little Tony, and his offsider Peta, were selected, as they combined aggression with stubbornness and single mindedness. This next photograph take in late 43 shows their sizes relative to myself, there are no other official photographs.
Self with Little Tony and Peta. Note relative size.
We had a crew but an untried submarine. This posed a significant problem for our engineering staff, How to get a submarine small enough, but potent enough through the Norwegian Fjord past the submarine nets, the minefield and auxillaries, and with minor course correction and influenced by the prevailing currents close enough to get at Tirpitz? I could not work out what instrument would do the trick. Clearly we were in uncharted territory and I had to develop something, as the window of opportunity was fast approaching.
Continued Tomorrow (And I, for one, can hardly wait!)