Part VI
You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way!
- Will Rogers.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt.
As British troops now had finished their withdrawal from many of the world’s potential hotspots or left the main burden of providing security to local forces – like the Don Light Horse in Northern Rhodesia, the number of young men called to do time in the National Service (a less warlike synonyme for conscription if you will) was scaled down from 12,000 a month to some 3,000. Generally speaking public opinion was behind the idea of National Service as it was clear that the post-war world was not a safe or stable place. As proven by the recently successfully concluded French campaign in Indo-China and the escalating conflict in Algeria, not to mention the Belgian mess in Congo and the Soviet Union’s hamfisted rampaging in its own backyard. National Service also played a vital role in boosting the standing army - even with its decreased commitment to the Empire, there was stil roughly 60,000 British troops posted around the world – and to introduce men into the Military who would otherwise not have considered serving. It is quite telling, that some 70% of the officer corps in the later 50’s and early 60’s were former National Servicemen.
Along with Elizabeths II’s ascention to the throne and the birth of the British Space Programme another very British tradition was born in the early 50’s as well - Racing.
Once the War had ended in 1945 and the British military gradually scaled back there suddenly were a high number of redundant airfields – not only in Britain itself, but around the world. The now famous Silverstone was one of these left-over airfields. In early 1948, the Royal Automobile Club approached the Air Ministry and was granted the use of Silverstone without much fuss. On October 2nd, 1948, Silverstone’s first racing event took place and was follwed be a series of sposored racing event for the next years f.x. - the Formula One Daily Express International Trophy open for Commonwealth citizens. The races were immensely popular and spectators flocked to the old airfield.
In 1950 the World Drivers’ Championship was created and the very first World Championship – which naturally was open for all nationalities - took place at Silverstone on May the 13th. It was a significant occasion for motor sport and the event was awarded the title of the European Grand Prix. The event was attended by King George VI, princess Elizabeth and other members of the upper crust. As Queen, Elizabeth II would return to Silverstone on nummerous occasions and seemed to be quite the racing fan. The original races had been dominated by Australians and British, but soon found the Italian drivers to be fierce competitors. After having lost to the Italians for a series of years, former RAF-pilots Brian Trubshaw – an employee of and driver for Bentley – and Ronald Harker – driving for an independent - finally brought the trophy back on British hands in 1958 and 59. The 50’s would establish the intense rivalry between the Italian automobile industry headed by Alfa Romeo and Ferrari and the British ditto headed by Aston Martin and Bentley. Later Mercedes-Benz and Ford would force their way into the racing elite with a series of sprtacular victories in the early 60’s. Trubshaw were by the way knighted in 1969, and made a lord in 1982. Harker died driving one of Morgan’s powerfull monocock cars at Brands Hatch in 1961, and was thus indirectly responsible for a lot of the restrcitions now placed on the various racing championships.
The late 50’s also brought with it the first new capital ships built in Britain since the end of the War. For almost 15 years the Royal Navy had scaled down and sold off ships, if not simply scrapping them. The habit of selling ships had indirectly led to an arms race in South America where Argentine, Brazil and Chile each viewed the others with great suspicion and thus found it necessary the match any and all steps taken by one of the others. A lot of elderly Royal Navy ships, along with planes, tanks and other surplus military equipement found its way to said countries in the late 40’s and early 50’s before the United States of America put a stop to it – which of course did little to endear the Americans to the British and thus brought with it another low in diplomatic relations.,
For some time the two only major capital ships – not counting the handfull of heavy cruisers - of the Royal Navy had been the battlehip HMS Vanguard and the fleet carrier HMS Ark Royal. Both ships were now placed in reserve as the new 47,000 tonnes fleet carriers HMS Malta and HMS Queen Elizabeth I raised their commands with much pomp. The two Malta’s would later in the late 60’s be supplemented by two atomic fleet carriers, HMS King George V and HMS Hood. Big George and Hood were truly monsters and packed a massive punch in form of the largest – some 120 aircraft contra the about 80 or so on the Malta’s - and most advanced air wings ever seen upon the Seven Seas – actually just one of these mammoth ships carried more planes than most air forces. As two further King George V class atomic carries were comissioned and put to sea in the 70’s, HMS Malta and her sistership were sold to India and South Africa respectively, while HMS Vanguard became a much loved museum ship and Ark Royal were scrapped.
Naturally the engineering success of the British would not stop with boats, planes and cars. In early 1960, Blue Streak – famed for its role in putting Smith and Radford into space, albeit briefly - became operational as a delivery system for atomic warheads. The criticism of Blue Streak however would in the end lead to the development of submarine-based missiles like the Peregrin. Blue Streak’s underground launch sites were far too vulnerable to a pre-emptive strike and the fuel used gave the missile a long fueling time. The first British Ballistic Submarine, HMS Dreadnought, put to sea in late 1962 and Blue Streak was officially replaced by Peregrin Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile system in the summer of 1963 as Britain's atomic deterrent. Submarine-based missiles continue to be the British atomic delivery system to the present day. The dozen Blue Streak underground launch sites, named silos in the US, are to this day used as bomb shelters and emergency control facilities by the RAF.
