After the failure of the Whirlwind,
the Air Ministry provided the Westland firm with a consolation prize in the form of a contract for a high-speed transport.
The new aircraft was certainly very sleek and looked fast just sitting still. Powered by two Merlin engines, it was able to out-pace even the famous De Havilland Mosquito in tests.
This speed led to the prototype being given the moniker Whicker which was a misunderstanding of a bystander's rural vernacular for "She's wicked fast!"
While never produced in great numbers, the Westland Whicker was appreciated nonetheless for its dispatch in delivering high-priority, often top-secret, cargo. Many clandestine missions were flown for the
Special Operations Executive.
The Allies had advanced steadily on all fronts after the D-Day landings. Much of their success was due to cracking the German Enigma machine codes.
The Germans were so convinced of their own infallability that it took them two years to figure out their "unbreakable" codes had been compromised.
This would force them to deploy a device of bewildering complexity.
This may have been why the fronts stalemated in Europe as 1946 began. Or it could have been the bulk shipments of alcohol to the theatre, but correlation does not necessarily equal causation.
The allies were stalled at the Oder river in the east and at the Rhine in the west. Clearly the new enemy codes had to be broken and this meant stealing an E-Stigma. Some serious spying was called for. Luckily the Special Operations Executive felt they had just the right man for the job.
At first recruiting a journalist for a secret mission might seem risky, but perhaps this particular individual was chosen for his uncanny ability to blend in.
This man of incredible diction and ability managed to obtain an E-Stigma from resistance contacts inside the
Deutschefunkenradgeschellshaft (gesundheit). He then personally took delivery of the machine and boarded a Westland Whicker which landed in the dead of night behind enemy lines for the pick-up.
The aircraft soon arrived back on Allied territory and now the enemy codes could be broken.
However, by mid-1946, the Allies had broken through on all fronts after the alcohol dried up. Unable to withstand this onslaught of sobriety, Germany surrendered unconditionally just as the analysts at Bletchley Park figured out the E-Stigma.
Despite this notable role in the war effort, the Westland Whicker was soon forgotten as it was replaced by more newer types. However, this high-speed transport's brief moment in the spotlight would presage the greater fame of its lone passenger by two decades.
No Westland Whickers survive today and the so-called "experts" insist this all must be the cryptic inner workings of some dark imagination they cannot decipher.
Brian da Basher