ELEVEN: . . . AND LOAD.
The crane began to move again, hoisting the Device almost up to level of the crane, then began to travel towards the rear of the hangar, away from the doors. Following it with his eyes, Lloyd George saw that the far corner of the hangar was partioned off with canvas screens, aout ten feet in height, and enclosing an area of roughly twenty feet by twenty. As the crane and the Device reached a position above the screened off area, the Device was lowered until it disappeared from view behind the screens. Lloyd George was just about to enquire as to the purpose of the manouvre, when Wells anticipated him.
'Once again, security. The hangar doors are about to be opened, and as the very appearance of the Device is Top Secret, no-one who is not authorised to know about it is permitted to even look at it. So, to prevent 'accidents', the Device is hidden from view when the hangar is open.'
And now, the hangar was indeed to be opened. Another crew of 'erks', younger, more boys than men, were doubling across the hangar floor towards the doors, each one smartly saluting the Officers, in stark contrast to the previous Technicians. As they arrived, the Senior Aircraftsman in charge went up to the near door, and grasped a large metal lever attached to it. Pushing it downwards about it's pivot, a series of metallic 'clunks' issued forth, as the doors were unlocked from each other. At this, the young 'erks' divided into two groups, and with much pushing and heaving, and cries of 'Two-Six!', began to push the doors apart. Even before they were fully open, Lloyd George was taken aback by what he saw. Outside the hangar was the biggest aeroplane he had ever seen. Coloured a rich, deep brown, and spanning almost as wide as the hangar doors, sat a 'Handley-Page' bomber.
From tip to tip, the wing stretched, as Lloyd George later learned, one hundred feet, and the length of the fuselage wasn't far short of that. The tip of the tail fin reached fifteen feet into the air, and the tailplane spanned double that. At it's tallest and widest, the vast fuselage was deep enough to allow a man to stand upright, and wide enough to allow two men to do so, side by side. On either side of the fuselage, a short pylon sprouting from the wing carried an engine nacelle, bluff fronted, with just the hint of a polished brass radiator, glinting in the strong light, and with a tapering tail, housing a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine. He could see the tips of the huge four-bladed propellers, dark against the bright sky. Half way along it's back, the Prime Minister saw the pair of Lewis guns, on their ring mount, and he knew that there was another gun, on a similar mount, on the aeroplane's nose.
The aircraft sat with it's tail end pointing into the hangar, it's tail skid supported on a two -wheeled dolly. The dolly's towbar was in turn connected another armoured tractor, similar to, but smaller than the one he'd seen earlier at Orfordness. A uniformed man stood a little way in front of the tractor. In each hand he held what looked like a tennis racquet, or rather a giant table tennis bat, painted bright red. Two other men, each with a similar apparatus, were perched one on each wingtip of the giant aeroplane. With a cough, and a cloud of dirty grey smoke, the engine of the tractor started up. The 'Batsman', raised both his hands above his head, and crossed his arms. The tractor began to move slowly forward, towing the aircraft, at no more than walking pace, towards the hangar.
After what seemed like an age, but was in actuality only around ten minutes, and with much waving of bats, and stopping, reversing, and starting again, which the Prime Minister couldn't quite fathom out, and didn't like to ask either Wells or Redgrave to explain, the giant Handley-Page bomber was safely ensconced in the hangar. With a repeat of their earlier performance, the young 'erks' closed the hangar doors, the Senior again locking them shut.
With door crew and aircraft handling party having made themselves scarce, four of the technicians who had previously worked on the Device reappeared. Two men climbed onto each wing root, the pair on the Port wing reached up, unfastened some clips, pushed, and as the other two caught and steadied it, the top of the fuselage above the wing opened up like the lid of a grand piano. Jumping down, and with a wave to the crane operator, the Technicians disappeared under the belly of the aeroplane. Once again, the crane came to life. The Device reappeared from behind the screens, and the crane traversed until the Device was suspended over the open top of the bomber. One of the Technicians appeared in the bomber's cockpit, and signalled to the crane operator. The signal received, the Device was slowly lowered inside the bomber's fuselage.
After a minute or two, the Technician signalled again, the hook, complete with chains, rose from inside the bomber, and the crane once again withdrew to the back of the hangar. The Technicians then re-appeared, and closed the top of the aircraft's fuselage.
'That's it,' said Wells, 'all ready to go.'
TO BE CONTINUED
cheers,
Robin.
