HMS Heligoland POD 1945 :
- Thread starter corditeman
- Start date
Not at all...
...West Berlin was always a bit ASB - I'm sure the inhabitants of Bonn would have agreed with that.
Britain did indeed spend a lot of time demolishing the facilities on Heligoland and it was hoped the 'Big Bang' would destroy the island. The demolition planners forgot that sandstone is incredibly good at absorbing shock damage - the 'honeycomb effect' - so the island didn't collapse into a sandpile for the sea to erode away. I remain furious about the abuse of Heligoland - it could have been a more remote UK Channel Island and would have played hob with North Sea economic zones.
On another note, I'll have to spare time to update this TL - spending time with my wife, overtime, book revision, allotment digging - all take up the hours...
...West Berlin was always a bit ASB - I'm sure the inhabitants of Bonn would have agreed with that.
Britain did indeed spend a lot of time demolishing the facilities on Heligoland and it was hoped the 'Big Bang' would destroy the island. The demolition planners forgot that sandstone is incredibly good at absorbing shock damage - the 'honeycomb effect' - so the island didn't collapse into a sandpile for the sea to erode away. I remain furious about the abuse of Heligoland - it could have been a more remote UK Channel Island and would have played hob with North Sea economic zones.
On another note, I'll have to spare time to update this TL - spending time with my wife, overtime, book revision, allotment digging - all take up the hours...
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Falkenburg
Monthly Donor
Not to mention that Bumper Update to the IoM ISOT you must be working on.
Falkenburg
Falkenburg
It could make the DDR very difficult to establish.
If I remember correctly that's all of Thüringen, Plauen, Halle, Leipzig, much of Anhalt and Western Mecklenburg being retained. Perhaps Stalin won't give so much to the Poles in the East.
But, oh, poor, poor Berlin and with Berlin gone, I can't see Bonn staying as the capital.
Hard luck the DDR...
...And why not use Bonn? Or would the USA insist on Frankfurt-am-Main to keep the West German capital in US control? It's a Neevil Plott, I tell you!
...And why not use Bonn? Or would the USA insist on Frankfurt-am-Main to keep the West German capital in US control? It's a Neevil Plott, I tell you!
Have you ever been to Bonn? If you have, that's why.
I think by default, it will have to be Frankfurt am Main.
The 1950s : Heligoland and Germany :
As the Forties ended, Heligoland remained as the cultural and political bridge between Germany and Britain, a place just outside Germany where visitors came to debate the future of Germany and Europe and to enjoy the clear air, clean sea and white sands.
The small size of Heligoland had finally told against its military and research future; the Mammut radar array was eventually replaced by a less-grandiose long-range radar and supplanted by the golfballs of the BMEWS radars on Fylingdales Moor. However, the site on Heligoland was re-used by 217 Squadron RAF, operating Bloodhound missiles in defence of the approaches to Denmark and Northwestern Germany. These were initially experimental, but became operational and remained there for nearly thirty-five years. An unusual feature was that two old turrets were stripped out and outfitted as the missile control rooms for the Bloodhounds, the reloads being stored in the old underground German magazines.
Fleet Air Arm aircraft operating off RNAS Hallem catapult and airstrips, remained the main air interception and strike force, whilst training carrier crews for deployment to carriers such as the 'HMS Eagle' and 'HMS Victorious'. Parts of the airfield were expanded after an extensive land reclamation and consolidation programme that almost doubled the size of Hallem, to allow the creation of the Heligoland Airport. Never very large, the airport operated short-haul aircraft to airports such as Stansted, Norwich, Bremen and Hamburg. The main contribution came from the aircraft control centre sited in the old radar, flak and lighthouse tower, which controlled most civil and military air movements into northern Germany and the Jutland part of Denmark.
Pilotage had resumed as an important task for the Helgolander men, but the air control centre became as important an employer for the women. The Helgolander WAAF control staff became known for precision and care, their trilingual skills in English, German and Danish, being highly respected. A similar HM Coastguard Control Centre oversaw shipping movements and provided weather reports for the Met Office centres in London and Hamburg. The Germans and Danes provided funds for this service which continued into the twentyfirst century.
Tourism started in the late fifties and grew steadily from then onwards; the hotels and boarding houses once occupied by 'German Heligolanders' and military research staff, began to fill with British, Danish and German tourists. The Helgolanders liked the English and Danes, but barely tolerated the Germans, being particularly annoyed by a visit by the reformed Bundesmarine (Federal German Navy) in 1956. The patrol boats 'Jaguar', 'Iltis' and 'Luchs', with two Minensuchboote, one old Schnellboote and a 'Hunt'-class destroyer renamed 'Gneisenau', entered the harbour in 1958 to face immediate Helgolander protests. Most of the crews had had Kriegsmarine experience and this was seen by many Helgolanders as a re-birth of the hated Nazi era. It was to take almost eight years before the mistrust subsided.
Baillie-Grohmann remained as civil Governor after relinquishing his naval command, at the request of the Helgolanders; when he finally retired at the age of 72, in 1960, he had successfully re-incorporated Heligoland as 'another Channel Island' and as part of the British Isles. He retained a home in Heligoland and considered the clear air and calm island life good for his health; the Helgolanders, young and old, regarded him as a mascot and retained him and his wife as Advisers to their Council. Particularly interested in promoting the Island's economic success, 'B-G' arranged scholarships for the Island children - as long as they spent at least three years after graduation on the Island. He had recognised that the most dangerous threat to the Helgolanders was a gradual loss of youth and talent by emigration to Britain, Denmark and Germany. His farsighted common-sense and Naval influence ensured that some quite high-level technical posts were offered first to Helgolanders and only afterwards to 'Outsiders', keeping up the Island's economic base. However, a lot of Helgolanders were exposed to outside influences by tourism and travel away from the 'Lunn', and as the Fifties progressed there was a growing economic lure from Germany.
With the gradual end of the Occupation - and even during it - West Germany began to recover in what was called the 'Economic Miracle'. This, for Heligoland, involved a lot more ships to be piloted and a lot more air-traffic to control. It also boosted tourism and Baillie-Grohmann's ideas of a duty-free zone and an artists' colony. Nor were the locals short of ideas - there was an annual folk dance and music festival and a migratory bird ringing event, expansion of lobster fishing and the creation of two fish-reefs. In 1959 the population of island residents (as distinct from garrison and visitors) was at 2,500 and the water supply had to be topped off with imports from Hamburg, to local dis-satisfaction. But there was a new growth industry - offshore company registration and banking, which was transforming the economy of the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, had flowered at Heligoland. For German firms, in particular, it was a way to evade Occupation restrictions, even if Helgolanders charged them a stiff fee for the privilege and 'B-G' warned of serious risks of clashes with the Lander and Federal governments.
As the Forties ended, Heligoland remained as the cultural and political bridge between Germany and Britain, a place just outside Germany where visitors came to debate the future of Germany and Europe and to enjoy the clear air, clean sea and white sands.
The small size of Heligoland had finally told against its military and research future; the Mammut radar array was eventually replaced by a less-grandiose long-range radar and supplanted by the golfballs of the BMEWS radars on Fylingdales Moor. However, the site on Heligoland was re-used by 217 Squadron RAF, operating Bloodhound missiles in defence of the approaches to Denmark and Northwestern Germany. These were initially experimental, but became operational and remained there for nearly thirty-five years. An unusual feature was that two old turrets were stripped out and outfitted as the missile control rooms for the Bloodhounds, the reloads being stored in the old underground German magazines.
Fleet Air Arm aircraft operating off RNAS Hallem catapult and airstrips, remained the main air interception and strike force, whilst training carrier crews for deployment to carriers such as the 'HMS Eagle' and 'HMS Victorious'. Parts of the airfield were expanded after an extensive land reclamation and consolidation programme that almost doubled the size of Hallem, to allow the creation of the Heligoland Airport. Never very large, the airport operated short-haul aircraft to airports such as Stansted, Norwich, Bremen and Hamburg. The main contribution came from the aircraft control centre sited in the old radar, flak and lighthouse tower, which controlled most civil and military air movements into northern Germany and the Jutland part of Denmark.
Pilotage had resumed as an important task for the Helgolander men, but the air control centre became as important an employer for the women. The Helgolander WAAF control staff became known for precision and care, their trilingual skills in English, German and Danish, being highly respected. A similar HM Coastguard Control Centre oversaw shipping movements and provided weather reports for the Met Office centres in London and Hamburg. The Germans and Danes provided funds for this service which continued into the twentyfirst century.
Tourism started in the late fifties and grew steadily from then onwards; the hotels and boarding houses once occupied by 'German Heligolanders' and military research staff, began to fill with British, Danish and German tourists. The Helgolanders liked the English and Danes, but barely tolerated the Germans, being particularly annoyed by a visit by the reformed Bundesmarine (Federal German Navy) in 1956. The patrol boats 'Jaguar', 'Iltis' and 'Luchs', with two Minensuchboote, one old Schnellboote and a 'Hunt'-class destroyer renamed 'Gneisenau', entered the harbour in 1958 to face immediate Helgolander protests. Most of the crews had had Kriegsmarine experience and this was seen by many Helgolanders as a re-birth of the hated Nazi era. It was to take almost eight years before the mistrust subsided.
Baillie-Grohmann remained as civil Governor after relinquishing his naval command, at the request of the Helgolanders; when he finally retired at the age of 72, in 1960, he had successfully re-incorporated Heligoland as 'another Channel Island' and as part of the British Isles. He retained a home in Heligoland and considered the clear air and calm island life good for his health; the Helgolanders, young and old, regarded him as a mascot and retained him and his wife as Advisers to their Council. Particularly interested in promoting the Island's economic success, 'B-G' arranged scholarships for the Island children - as long as they spent at least three years after graduation on the Island. He had recognised that the most dangerous threat to the Helgolanders was a gradual loss of youth and talent by emigration to Britain, Denmark and Germany. His farsighted common-sense and Naval influence ensured that some quite high-level technical posts were offered first to Helgolanders and only afterwards to 'Outsiders', keeping up the Island's economic base. However, a lot of Helgolanders were exposed to outside influences by tourism and travel away from the 'Lunn', and as the Fifties progressed there was a growing economic lure from Germany.
With the gradual end of the Occupation - and even during it - West Germany began to recover in what was called the 'Economic Miracle'. This, for Heligoland, involved a lot more ships to be piloted and a lot more air-traffic to control. It also boosted tourism and Baillie-Grohmann's ideas of a duty-free zone and an artists' colony. Nor were the locals short of ideas - there was an annual folk dance and music festival and a migratory bird ringing event, expansion of lobster fishing and the creation of two fish-reefs. In 1959 the population of island residents (as distinct from garrison and visitors) was at 2,500 and the water supply had to be topped off with imports from Hamburg, to local dis-satisfaction. But there was a new growth industry - offshore company registration and banking, which was transforming the economy of the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, had flowered at Heligoland. For German firms, in particular, it was a way to evade Occupation restrictions, even if Helgolanders charged them a stiff fee for the privilege and 'B-G' warned of serious risks of clashes with the Lander and Federal governments.
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Word Cup?
No, but it could hold a spelling contest. There is a school and at least one Lutheran Pastor as umpire.
I have wondered if the Island might send someone to the Eurovision Song Contest.
No, but it could hold a spelling contest. There is a school and at least one Lutheran Pastor as umpire.
I have wondered if the Island might send someone to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Post 28 complete...
...Now we're into the Swinging Sixties.
I'm going to be a naughty boy - thoughts of the Beatles in Hamburg, Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline and the rest - coloured this. Any other notions, folks?
...Now we're into the Swinging Sixties.
I'm going to be a naughty boy - thoughts of the Beatles in Hamburg, Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline and the rest - coloured this. Any other notions, folks?
1960s Heligoland : Pop Culture, Trouble, Oil and Gas :
As British Heligoland passed into the 1960s, it had become something of a political 'hot potato' due to its continuing uncertainty of political status. There was general refusal in Europe and particularly in Germany, to recognise the British nature of Heligoland. Many German politicians - prodded by the 'German Helgolander' lobby group - wanted Heligoland 'returned' to Germany, a matter opposed wholeheartedly by Conservatives and Liberals, but only weakly by the Labour party. Britain could point to longer occupation by Britain than Germany, whilst the very angry native Helgolanders held polls and votes that uniformly showed a 98% demand for recognition of their British nature. Like Gibraltar and the Falklands, the Heligoland population had no desire at all to come under the control of nations bound to make use of their 'Lunn' without reference to themselves. There was petition after petition for affiliation with Kent's Thanet district, to give them a voice in Parliament.
Much the strangest result of this - and the effective neutrality of the 'Lunn' outside the British naval and air bases - was something that occurred in 1959 in the wake of the five years' success of Radio Luxembourg's commercial radio service. Radio Free Heligoland broadcast pop music from 5th February 1960 on frequencies that covered Denmark, Southern Norway, western Sweden, northern Germany, the Benelux countries and Britain. A completely local idea, the transmission frequency avoided interference with aviation, marine and radar frequencies used by other equipment on Heligoland. It also thoroughly irritated the 'German Helgolanders', who predictably complained that the Radio Free Heligoland presenters broadcast propaganda opposed to a German integration of the island.
HM Government found themselves in a cleft stick; they could not acknowledge the irritating problem without admitting Heligoland completely into the British Isles, but the broadcasts appeared to break the monopoly of the BBC on public radio transmissions. To shut Radio Free Heligoland down would acknowledge Crown authority over the civil parts of Heligoland, which was the one thing the German government sought to avoid. Both the Bundesrepublik and HM Government could only stand by and watch the impudent Helgolanders continue to raise the awareness of their cause in the youth of eight and more countries. Youth loves rebels, so Free Heligoland and the Heliogoland flag became a popular poster in the bedrooms of millions of kids. And, inevitably, the interest of tourists in this tiny and impudent island mushroomed.
When the then-obscure 'The Beatles' band was playing in Liverpool and Hamburg in 1960, they attracted the dislike of a bunch of the more foolish proponents of German Heligoland. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe and Best, were invited by Radio Free Heligoland to visit the Lunn and perform in the Kurhaus, now re-named the 'Konvershus'. The result passed into pop history - the first pop festival on Heligoland, broadcast warts and all by Radio Free Heligoland. Local sponsors and the advertising companies made a fortune from that and subsequent events, which launched the career of possibly the most famous pop group in recording history. It made the Radio Free Heligoland station untouchable and Sutcliffe's terrible death from an aneurysm in 1962 was to earn him a grave in the Sankt Nikolas churchyard. Pete Best nearly lost his position in the band as drummer after their manager Epstein thought his drumming was too weak, but turned it round and saved an astonishing career.
To become the pop capital of Britain, jointly with liverpool, was enough to do the trick in 1963; almost the last task of Alec Douglas-Hume's Conservative government of 1963, was to put through the British Heligoland Incorporation Act, recognising that the inhabitants were British citizens and affiliating them to Thanet Constituency. The first MP for Thanet and Heligoland was the redoubtable Harold Tom Baillie-Grohmann, who agreed to serve for four years and then stood down at the next election. In his maiden speech he referred to the benefits of loyalty, duty and citizenship, saying that the popular music culture had questioned ideas and beliefs and had brought freedom to his constituents.
"...The defence of the realm depends on the will of the people and on just government." 'B-G' reminded the Commons. "Thanet and Heligoland are the two most-invaded parts of the British Isles and have seen war at the front line. We know that the price of peace is the readiness to stand up against tyranny and to be willing to fight for our rights. Let this Chamber not forget that diplomatic mistakes are paid for in blood. Heligoland is the free world's bastion against tyrants - long may it remain so, whether by amending constitutions, writing songs, spreading the truth by broadcasting and guiding ships and aircraft safely to their destinations."
His speech colored much of what followed; the Labour Party had won the election, but Radio Free Heligoland had shown up the importance of defending democracy and minorities from heavy-handed government interference - a salutary warning from the streets, to troublesome apparatchiks like Harold Wilson. Gaitskell died before the election took place, depriving the Labour Party of what could have been one of its greatest Prime Ministers since Clement Attlee, leaving men like Denis Callaghan and George Brown to slug it out with Wilson. One wit said it was a battle between a Pipe, Intellect and a Bottle, referring to Wilson's smoking, Callaghan's skill and Brown's interest in alcohol. Brown and Callaghan were both Gaitskellites, so after an inconclusive result, Callaghan agreed to support Brown as long as that Deputy Leader of the Labour Party cut down on his alcohol intake. George Brown was sufficiently motivated by the thought of Premiership to prefer it to the bottle and in fact lead the Labour into its most impressive result for decades. Cheerful, tubby, Brown set in motion a programme of measures in the Labour Party to make it both electable and (he hoped) proof against left-wing abuse; he admitted freely that what had motivated him was meeting Baillie-Grohmann and appreciating how the man had conquered illness and opposition. In fact, George Brown was a regular visitor to Heligoland thereafter, saying that it kept him aware of the need to defend Western socialism against communist infiltration and that the combination of sea, sand and youthful pop enthusiasm was 'more stimulating than a case of champagne'.
Even in death, the shrewd Gaitskell had his influence on the Labour Party, which (prodded by Brown) remained averse to entering into the European Economic Community. The Nordics and the British Isles formed the European Free Trade Association in 1960 and Brown developed it into a strong bloc, by offering trade links with the Commonwealth - and refusing them to non-EFTA states, including the EEC and the USA. This stroke of genius - or, according to some, folly - immediately massively increased EFTA markets and resources, to the fury of De Gaulle in France and the dismay of Germany. France - or, rather, De Gaulle - promptly declared that this was another example of 'Perfide Albion' and declared that France (De Gaulle) would veto any nation in EFTA that tried to join the EEC. This thoroughly irritated the Scandinavians, whose media spoke of 'French hegemony' in the EEC and suggested that Germany join EFTA. George Brown is said to have laughed when he got the news, whilst the Helgolanders went out of their way to be polite to German visitors and were even polite to the 'German Helgolanders'.
Development of onshore gas and oil fields by the Netherlands and Germany from the 1930s onwards had shown promise of gas and oil under the North Sea, the massive Dutch gas fields at Groningen in the Netherlands being developed by 1964. Early indications of gas and the oil deposits near Hamburg had triggered a lot of early postwar attempts by the German government to get Heligoland back, but the British Continental Shelf Act 1964 raised a storm of protest. A 1938 borehole down from Heligoland had shown neither oil nor gas, although it had revealed the salt plug whose movement had uplifted Heligoland; the point at issue was that Economic Zones were largely determined by calculations of mid-points from coastlines of the nations bordering the North Sea. Unless Heligoland was completely ignored, it would take away almost sixty percent of Germany's small North Sea sector, giving Britain the largest share of the North Sea. Britain's discovery of the Leman and Indefatigable fields was a further boost to Britain's economy and Germany's dismay, but the southern North Sea near Germany was sadly bare of geolgical formations that could contain oil or gas. One well revealed gas under pressure - but it was nitrogen and carbon dioxide, not a fuel gas.
George Brown, being a statesman when not drunk, discussed the oilfield licensing matter with the Heligoland Development Council and chaired a debate between them and representatives of the German, Danish and British governments. He came up with the concept of Joint Licencing Areas, with extraction royalties shared between Germans, Danes and Helgolanders, the Helgolanders getting 8% of the royalties on any developments. There was also agreement on a five-mile Exclusive Economic Zone off the shores of each nation and Heligoland, to protect some fishing and other matters, whilst Heligoland was to develop a service port for the oilfield support ships and helicopters. This stratagem neatly made dual-use of the airport and the almost-useless submarine pens, George Brown's economic gift to the Helgolanders. In his Memoirs, George Brown admitted to having discussed the matter beforehand with 'B-G', the two men almost ruthlessly manoeuvering Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark into agreement. For their part, the Danes discussed the erection of an offshore wind farm off Hallem on the tidal reefs, keeping well clear of the approaches to the airport and the harbours; with its steady winds, Heligoland was perfect as an experimental station for this new technology.
Internationally, Heligoland had little impact on the global scene; the British, the Danes and the Germans, had kept it very much in-house and disdained French and American offers of 'mediation'; the under-rated George Brown had made an impact, most notably in the field of defence. He had told Labour Party left wing activists to go to Heligoland and to the Iron Curtain front line, to compare the conditions and the threats, before coming to the Party Conferences with demands for disarmament. That rather stunted the attempts of Anthony Wedgewood Benn and Harold Wilson to gain credibility, Benn complaining that the Helgolanders and West Germans had been 'rude' to him by telling him to emigrate to Moscow. The other key influence was Dennis Healey; he and Brown agreed that Britain needed a credible independent deterrent, continuing the viuews of Aneurin Bevan, Attlee and Gaitskell, Britain maintaining its V-bomber force throughout the 1960s and belatedly considering acquisition of a submarine-based deterrent. The Valiant bombers were retired early with metal fatigue, but the Victor and delta-winged Vulcan were too useful to be replaced so early in their lives; uprated and modernised, re-built on occasion, the V-bombers were still in service in 2012, in many cases older by far than their aircrews.
Always innovative, Britain had managed to retain is technological edge at the cost of two failing car firms and a bicycle firm, all three refused financial bailouts but encouraged to accept American and Japanese takeover bids. The money instead went into the development of three rather esoteric projects - the Blue Streak IRBM and its Black Arrow and Centaur upper stages. American Polaris submarines being very expensive and 'tying us to the USA', as Healey pointed out, the Labour Party went for something more interesting - development of a Thor II ramjet-powered Blue Steel standoff bomb that turned into the White Hammer cruise missile, with pairs under the Vulcan and Victor. White Hammer's airframe was shrunk slightly for the White Sniper cruise missile, launchable from 21-inch torpedo tubes, but in practice the Navy preferred twelve vertical tubes pre-loaded and launched from an attack submarine. Sneered at by the USA as the 'Poor Man's Polaris', White Hammer and White Sniper proved to be very hard to intercept; they relied upon terrain-following radar and later on satellite navigation, 'to put the bomb in the politician's office' as Healey put it.
As British Heligoland passed into the 1960s, it had become something of a political 'hot potato' due to its continuing uncertainty of political status. There was general refusal in Europe and particularly in Germany, to recognise the British nature of Heligoland. Many German politicians - prodded by the 'German Helgolander' lobby group - wanted Heligoland 'returned' to Germany, a matter opposed wholeheartedly by Conservatives and Liberals, but only weakly by the Labour party. Britain could point to longer occupation by Britain than Germany, whilst the very angry native Helgolanders held polls and votes that uniformly showed a 98% demand for recognition of their British nature. Like Gibraltar and the Falklands, the Heligoland population had no desire at all to come under the control of nations bound to make use of their 'Lunn' without reference to themselves. There was petition after petition for affiliation with Kent's Thanet district, to give them a voice in Parliament.
Much the strangest result of this - and the effective neutrality of the 'Lunn' outside the British naval and air bases - was something that occurred in 1959 in the wake of the five years' success of Radio Luxembourg's commercial radio service. Radio Free Heligoland broadcast pop music from 5th February 1960 on frequencies that covered Denmark, Southern Norway, western Sweden, northern Germany, the Benelux countries and Britain. A completely local idea, the transmission frequency avoided interference with aviation, marine and radar frequencies used by other equipment on Heligoland. It also thoroughly irritated the 'German Helgolanders', who predictably complained that the Radio Free Heligoland presenters broadcast propaganda opposed to a German integration of the island.
HM Government found themselves in a cleft stick; they could not acknowledge the irritating problem without admitting Heligoland completely into the British Isles, but the broadcasts appeared to break the monopoly of the BBC on public radio transmissions. To shut Radio Free Heligoland down would acknowledge Crown authority over the civil parts of Heligoland, which was the one thing the German government sought to avoid. Both the Bundesrepublik and HM Government could only stand by and watch the impudent Helgolanders continue to raise the awareness of their cause in the youth of eight and more countries. Youth loves rebels, so Free Heligoland and the Heliogoland flag became a popular poster in the bedrooms of millions of kids. And, inevitably, the interest of tourists in this tiny and impudent island mushroomed.
When the then-obscure 'The Beatles' band was playing in Liverpool and Hamburg in 1960, they attracted the dislike of a bunch of the more foolish proponents of German Heligoland. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe and Best, were invited by Radio Free Heligoland to visit the Lunn and perform in the Kurhaus, now re-named the 'Konvershus'. The result passed into pop history - the first pop festival on Heligoland, broadcast warts and all by Radio Free Heligoland. Local sponsors and the advertising companies made a fortune from that and subsequent events, which launched the career of possibly the most famous pop group in recording history. It made the Radio Free Heligoland station untouchable and Sutcliffe's terrible death from an aneurysm in 1962 was to earn him a grave in the Sankt Nikolas churchyard. Pete Best nearly lost his position in the band as drummer after their manager Epstein thought his drumming was too weak, but turned it round and saved an astonishing career.
To become the pop capital of Britain, jointly with liverpool, was enough to do the trick in 1963; almost the last task of Alec Douglas-Hume's Conservative government of 1963, was to put through the British Heligoland Incorporation Act, recognising that the inhabitants were British citizens and affiliating them to Thanet Constituency. The first MP for Thanet and Heligoland was the redoubtable Harold Tom Baillie-Grohmann, who agreed to serve for four years and then stood down at the next election. In his maiden speech he referred to the benefits of loyalty, duty and citizenship, saying that the popular music culture had questioned ideas and beliefs and had brought freedom to his constituents.
"...The defence of the realm depends on the will of the people and on just government." 'B-G' reminded the Commons. "Thanet and Heligoland are the two most-invaded parts of the British Isles and have seen war at the front line. We know that the price of peace is the readiness to stand up against tyranny and to be willing to fight for our rights. Let this Chamber not forget that diplomatic mistakes are paid for in blood. Heligoland is the free world's bastion against tyrants - long may it remain so, whether by amending constitutions, writing songs, spreading the truth by broadcasting and guiding ships and aircraft safely to their destinations."
His speech colored much of what followed; the Labour Party had won the election, but Radio Free Heligoland had shown up the importance of defending democracy and minorities from heavy-handed government interference - a salutary warning from the streets, to troublesome apparatchiks like Harold Wilson. Gaitskell died before the election took place, depriving the Labour Party of what could have been one of its greatest Prime Ministers since Clement Attlee, leaving men like Denis Callaghan and George Brown to slug it out with Wilson. One wit said it was a battle between a Pipe, Intellect and a Bottle, referring to Wilson's smoking, Callaghan's skill and Brown's interest in alcohol. Brown and Callaghan were both Gaitskellites, so after an inconclusive result, Callaghan agreed to support Brown as long as that Deputy Leader of the Labour Party cut down on his alcohol intake. George Brown was sufficiently motivated by the thought of Premiership to prefer it to the bottle and in fact lead the Labour into its most impressive result for decades. Cheerful, tubby, Brown set in motion a programme of measures in the Labour Party to make it both electable and (he hoped) proof against left-wing abuse; he admitted freely that what had motivated him was meeting Baillie-Grohmann and appreciating how the man had conquered illness and opposition. In fact, George Brown was a regular visitor to Heligoland thereafter, saying that it kept him aware of the need to defend Western socialism against communist infiltration and that the combination of sea, sand and youthful pop enthusiasm was 'more stimulating than a case of champagne'.
Even in death, the shrewd Gaitskell had his influence on the Labour Party, which (prodded by Brown) remained averse to entering into the European Economic Community. The Nordics and the British Isles formed the European Free Trade Association in 1960 and Brown developed it into a strong bloc, by offering trade links with the Commonwealth - and refusing them to non-EFTA states, including the EEC and the USA. This stroke of genius - or, according to some, folly - immediately massively increased EFTA markets and resources, to the fury of De Gaulle in France and the dismay of Germany. France - or, rather, De Gaulle - promptly declared that this was another example of 'Perfide Albion' and declared that France (De Gaulle) would veto any nation in EFTA that tried to join the EEC. This thoroughly irritated the Scandinavians, whose media spoke of 'French hegemony' in the EEC and suggested that Germany join EFTA. George Brown is said to have laughed when he got the news, whilst the Helgolanders went out of their way to be polite to German visitors and were even polite to the 'German Helgolanders'.
Development of onshore gas and oil fields by the Netherlands and Germany from the 1930s onwards had shown promise of gas and oil under the North Sea, the massive Dutch gas fields at Groningen in the Netherlands being developed by 1964. Early indications of gas and the oil deposits near Hamburg had triggered a lot of early postwar attempts by the German government to get Heligoland back, but the British Continental Shelf Act 1964 raised a storm of protest. A 1938 borehole down from Heligoland had shown neither oil nor gas, although it had revealed the salt plug whose movement had uplifted Heligoland; the point at issue was that Economic Zones were largely determined by calculations of mid-points from coastlines of the nations bordering the North Sea. Unless Heligoland was completely ignored, it would take away almost sixty percent of Germany's small North Sea sector, giving Britain the largest share of the North Sea. Britain's discovery of the Leman and Indefatigable fields was a further boost to Britain's economy and Germany's dismay, but the southern North Sea near Germany was sadly bare of geolgical formations that could contain oil or gas. One well revealed gas under pressure - but it was nitrogen and carbon dioxide, not a fuel gas.
George Brown, being a statesman when not drunk, discussed the oilfield licensing matter with the Heligoland Development Council and chaired a debate between them and representatives of the German, Danish and British governments. He came up with the concept of Joint Licencing Areas, with extraction royalties shared between Germans, Danes and Helgolanders, the Helgolanders getting 8% of the royalties on any developments. There was also agreement on a five-mile Exclusive Economic Zone off the shores of each nation and Heligoland, to protect some fishing and other matters, whilst Heligoland was to develop a service port for the oilfield support ships and helicopters. This stratagem neatly made dual-use of the airport and the almost-useless submarine pens, George Brown's economic gift to the Helgolanders. In his Memoirs, George Brown admitted to having discussed the matter beforehand with 'B-G', the two men almost ruthlessly manoeuvering Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark into agreement. For their part, the Danes discussed the erection of an offshore wind farm off Hallem on the tidal reefs, keeping well clear of the approaches to the airport and the harbours; with its steady winds, Heligoland was perfect as an experimental station for this new technology.
Internationally, Heligoland had little impact on the global scene; the British, the Danes and the Germans, had kept it very much in-house and disdained French and American offers of 'mediation'; the under-rated George Brown had made an impact, most notably in the field of defence. He had told Labour Party left wing activists to go to Heligoland and to the Iron Curtain front line, to compare the conditions and the threats, before coming to the Party Conferences with demands for disarmament. That rather stunted the attempts of Anthony Wedgewood Benn and Harold Wilson to gain credibility, Benn complaining that the Helgolanders and West Germans had been 'rude' to him by telling him to emigrate to Moscow. The other key influence was Dennis Healey; he and Brown agreed that Britain needed a credible independent deterrent, continuing the viuews of Aneurin Bevan, Attlee and Gaitskell, Britain maintaining its V-bomber force throughout the 1960s and belatedly considering acquisition of a submarine-based deterrent. The Valiant bombers were retired early with metal fatigue, but the Victor and delta-winged Vulcan were too useful to be replaced so early in their lives; uprated and modernised, re-built on occasion, the V-bombers were still in service in 2012, in many cases older by far than their aircrews.
Always innovative, Britain had managed to retain is technological edge at the cost of two failing car firms and a bicycle firm, all three refused financial bailouts but encouraged to accept American and Japanese takeover bids. The money instead went into the development of three rather esoteric projects - the Blue Streak IRBM and its Black Arrow and Centaur upper stages. American Polaris submarines being very expensive and 'tying us to the USA', as Healey pointed out, the Labour Party went for something more interesting - development of a Thor II ramjet-powered Blue Steel standoff bomb that turned into the White Hammer cruise missile, with pairs under the Vulcan and Victor. White Hammer's airframe was shrunk slightly for the White Sniper cruise missile, launchable from 21-inch torpedo tubes, but in practice the Navy preferred twelve vertical tubes pre-loaded and launched from an attack submarine. Sneered at by the USA as the 'Poor Man's Polaris', White Hammer and White Sniper proved to be very hard to intercept; they relied upon terrain-following radar and later on satellite navigation, 'to put the bomb in the politician's office' as Healey put it.
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So we've seen some technological changes already, but how has this affected Britain geopolitically thus far?
Effects on UK minor...
...We're in the postwar era. Heligoland is almost of zero strategic importance in the 1950s. That is going to change shortly. Care to guess why?
Answers on a postage stamp. Two three-letter words.
...We're in the postwar era. Heligoland is almost of zero strategic importance in the 1950s. That is going to change shortly. Care to guess why?
Answers on a postage stamp. Two three-letter words.
A timeline where Alec Douglas-Home actually Does something? Never been done before, good one.
1970s : Rockets, Oil, Reclamation and a Disaster :
1960s complete, so here we go again...
The Blue Streak/Centaur rocket booster combination had originally been intended for geocentric satellites, but it proved equally valuable for lower-level navigation and communications satellites, giving the RAF and Royal Navy the ability to guide their own 1,000 nautical mile supersonic cruise missiles onto a small target. Whilst the Russians and Americans went for ballistic missiles of massive weight and power, Britain's more modest concept proved harder to detect and very difficult to intercept. Above all, it was not in an easily-targetted silo; the quiet British advanced diesel-electric submarines of the 1960s and 1970s were a nightmare for the Soviet Navy, far quieter than even a Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine. Perfection of mass production of cheaply-built turbofan jet engines was to let Britain extend the range of a slower transsonic version to 2,500 miles - adequate enough to threaten most Soviet targets from outside Soviet-controlled airspace. Heligoland was rumoured to be the correction-beacon for cruise missiles slated to blast Soviet Army and Air Force targets in East Garmany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, but this was never confirmed.
Britain's modest inmdependent deterrent and small-scale satellite launching programme was to seriously annoy the French, whose development of the Ariane series or rockets was slower to evolve. Whilst Britain did not have the near-Equatorial site of Kourou, it did have access to Sri Lanka and Southern India, where the Indian and British governments set up an extensive launch site for geocentric satellite launching. Although not as big as Russian and American designs, the Streak-Centaur was quite adequate to orbit a considerable payload, particularly when the Streak-Three design was perfected in the 1970s; this had three Blue Streak rockets side by side, the centre sustainer stage having the Centaur upper stage to boost 4 tonnes of payload and third stage into Earth orbit. In a cheap and cheerful example of 'We Can Do It', Commonwealth One launched an unmanned capsule into orbit in 1974, recovering it in the Indian Ocean off Ceylon after ten orbits. This was repeated two months later when the two-man Brotherhood capsule carried Squadron Leaders David Watkins and Daleep Singh into orbit for a three-day mission, the return a remarkable venture that was hailed as an Anglo-Indian act of unity and racial harmony. Whilst America landed on the Moon and Russia operated its Salyut space station, it seemed as if the despised Commonwealth and EFTA were making their own successes and discovering how to unite the races. Old George Brown remarked that it did his heart good to see mixed races in Bradford rejoicing and embracing, wild with the success of the joint venture.
The European Free Trade Association had ben successful in gaining the Swedes, who themselves had advanced technologically; some of the Cmmonwealth launchers used Swedish technology in their guidance systems. The Nordic Council were in general the backbone of EFTA, their linkage to Britain an ironic result of folk dance festivals in Heligoland involving Danish Frisians, Faeroese, Norwegians and Swedes. After the Beatles faded out, groups such as the Seekers and Abba stepped in, making the Lunn a place of almost continuous music, dance and poetry. Old air-raid-shelters of the Nazi era were modified for use in pop concerts and festivals, an extension of the German-built Nordostland holding a large permanent covered pop theatre. That 'Popfesthus' was the scene of a terrible disaster in 1972; a fire swept through the building and killed 273 people, 46 of them Helgolanders, a scale of death not seen on the Lunn since the end of World War II; an enquiry determined that the safety precautions, though up to standards of the time, were inadequate, leading to a time of great mourning. Ambassadors from all the Scandinavian countries met on Heligoland for the funerals and carried out secret talks on other matters, the exchange of military intelligence and technical information being the most important aspect.
George Brown had an unusual four terms in office, with a break only after his third term for Edward Heath's Tory administration, but he was finally to retire at the end of his fourth term, when Jim Callaghan lost to Margaret Thatcher. To give her credit, Prime Minister Thatcher in her opening speech gave George Brown praise for 'Saving the country from the Communists' and maintaining a strong defensive posture. However, she did point to wasteful expenditure in other areas, saying that a 'cradle to the grave' nanny-state was breeding millions of welfare dependents. There had been high immigration from the Commonwealth countries, notably India, which had provided factories for firms that had transferred there from Britain. American firms were instead going to Japan and Taiwan, but were trying to gain access to the People's Republic of China for yet lower wage-levels - a move Thatcher denounced as helping only the enemies of democracy. Already titled 'The Iron Lady', Thatcher was to prove to be more so; Brown remarked that she would be useful in wartime but might drive strong men to drink during peacetime - a sally that drew laughter in the Commons.
Heligoland modestly influenced the 1970s discussions of the status of Gibraltar, a matter that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office found as inconvenient as Heligoland and not as profitable. The French and Spaniards wanted Britain to hand over the Rock of Gibraltar, but found that neither Heath, nor Brown nor Thatcher, would yield an inch. Baillie-Grohmann suggested in the last years of his life that Gibraltar receive the same status as Heligoland, to the laughter of the Helgolanders and the delight of the Gibraltarians. When the same was said of the Falkland Islands, the FCO nearly had a collective heart-attack; the Falklanders agreed that it was an excellent idea and were to establish good-natured 'Twinning' of Port Stanley with both Gibraltar and Heligoland. The most interesting aspect was that the Falklanders - short of population - offered settlement on Crown Lands for those German Helgolanders and Gibraltarians willing to homestead down in the Falklands. Only a few hundred cared to do so, adding new skills to the sheep-rearing population. One Spanish politician then proposed transporting all Gibraltarians unwilling to live under Spanish rule to new lives in the Falklands, which proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm in Argentina; the Argentinos had for almost two centuries thumped the tub about their claim of the 'Islas Malvinas' as a way of getting national unity. This caused still more amusement in Heligoland, which had its own nationality to defend.
1974 saw the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East and a massive increase in crude oil prices, creating a surge in North Sea exploration and development for almost fifteen years. Heligoland profited from the helicopter and support vessel activity, a much-needed boost after the terrible disaster at the 'Popfesthus', which was not rebuilt as it was considered deangerous. Instead, the site was cleared and a large helipad constructed for Bristow Helicopters and the Air-Sea Rescue service; the disaster gave a dramatic fillip to plans to reclaim the channel between Hallem and the Lunn (Heligoland Island), to restore something not seen since 1713. Reclamation involved suction dredging thousands of tonnes of sand and mud to infill rubble dykes that gave protection from erosion. It was to take six years to compact and finish, but the result was a massive crescent shaped island which also provided a large protective anchorage for visiting shipping and doubled the pre-war size of the Heligoland Lunn. Some Helgolanders nicknamed it the 'Arabian Desert', referring to the oil prices that had paid for the work, but on the maps it was the 'Wittkliff', a reference to the white limestone cliffs that had been quarried away centuries before. Blasting and grab-dredging had brought up enough of the Muschelkalk limestone to sheath the northern shore of the new land with armour against erosion, creating a cliff almost forty feet high and a shingle beach that was - very appropriately - colonised artificially with mussels to add extra protection. Offshore, the reefs (Felswatt) were planted with kelp as a wave moderator, a scheme that was partly effective and increased the lobster and fish population.
1960s complete, so here we go again...
The Blue Streak/Centaur rocket booster combination had originally been intended for geocentric satellites, but it proved equally valuable for lower-level navigation and communications satellites, giving the RAF and Royal Navy the ability to guide their own 1,000 nautical mile supersonic cruise missiles onto a small target. Whilst the Russians and Americans went for ballistic missiles of massive weight and power, Britain's more modest concept proved harder to detect and very difficult to intercept. Above all, it was not in an easily-targetted silo; the quiet British advanced diesel-electric submarines of the 1960s and 1970s were a nightmare for the Soviet Navy, far quieter than even a Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine. Perfection of mass production of cheaply-built turbofan jet engines was to let Britain extend the range of a slower transsonic version to 2,500 miles - adequate enough to threaten most Soviet targets from outside Soviet-controlled airspace. Heligoland was rumoured to be the correction-beacon for cruise missiles slated to blast Soviet Army and Air Force targets in East Garmany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, but this was never confirmed.
Britain's modest inmdependent deterrent and small-scale satellite launching programme was to seriously annoy the French, whose development of the Ariane series or rockets was slower to evolve. Whilst Britain did not have the near-Equatorial site of Kourou, it did have access to Sri Lanka and Southern India, where the Indian and British governments set up an extensive launch site for geocentric satellite launching. Although not as big as Russian and American designs, the Streak-Centaur was quite adequate to orbit a considerable payload, particularly when the Streak-Three design was perfected in the 1970s; this had three Blue Streak rockets side by side, the centre sustainer stage having the Centaur upper stage to boost 4 tonnes of payload and third stage into Earth orbit. In a cheap and cheerful example of 'We Can Do It', Commonwealth One launched an unmanned capsule into orbit in 1974, recovering it in the Indian Ocean off Ceylon after ten orbits. This was repeated two months later when the two-man Brotherhood capsule carried Squadron Leaders David Watkins and Daleep Singh into orbit for a three-day mission, the return a remarkable venture that was hailed as an Anglo-Indian act of unity and racial harmony. Whilst America landed on the Moon and Russia operated its Salyut space station, it seemed as if the despised Commonwealth and EFTA were making their own successes and discovering how to unite the races. Old George Brown remarked that it did his heart good to see mixed races in Bradford rejoicing and embracing, wild with the success of the joint venture.
The European Free Trade Association had ben successful in gaining the Swedes, who themselves had advanced technologically; some of the Cmmonwealth launchers used Swedish technology in their guidance systems. The Nordic Council were in general the backbone of EFTA, their linkage to Britain an ironic result of folk dance festivals in Heligoland involving Danish Frisians, Faeroese, Norwegians and Swedes. After the Beatles faded out, groups such as the Seekers and Abba stepped in, making the Lunn a place of almost continuous music, dance and poetry. Old air-raid-shelters of the Nazi era were modified for use in pop concerts and festivals, an extension of the German-built Nordostland holding a large permanent covered pop theatre. That 'Popfesthus' was the scene of a terrible disaster in 1972; a fire swept through the building and killed 273 people, 46 of them Helgolanders, a scale of death not seen on the Lunn since the end of World War II; an enquiry determined that the safety precautions, though up to standards of the time, were inadequate, leading to a time of great mourning. Ambassadors from all the Scandinavian countries met on Heligoland for the funerals and carried out secret talks on other matters, the exchange of military intelligence and technical information being the most important aspect.
George Brown had an unusual four terms in office, with a break only after his third term for Edward Heath's Tory administration, but he was finally to retire at the end of his fourth term, when Jim Callaghan lost to Margaret Thatcher. To give her credit, Prime Minister Thatcher in her opening speech gave George Brown praise for 'Saving the country from the Communists' and maintaining a strong defensive posture. However, she did point to wasteful expenditure in other areas, saying that a 'cradle to the grave' nanny-state was breeding millions of welfare dependents. There had been high immigration from the Commonwealth countries, notably India, which had provided factories for firms that had transferred there from Britain. American firms were instead going to Japan and Taiwan, but were trying to gain access to the People's Republic of China for yet lower wage-levels - a move Thatcher denounced as helping only the enemies of democracy. Already titled 'The Iron Lady', Thatcher was to prove to be more so; Brown remarked that she would be useful in wartime but might drive strong men to drink during peacetime - a sally that drew laughter in the Commons.
Heligoland modestly influenced the 1970s discussions of the status of Gibraltar, a matter that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office found as inconvenient as Heligoland and not as profitable. The French and Spaniards wanted Britain to hand over the Rock of Gibraltar, but found that neither Heath, nor Brown nor Thatcher, would yield an inch. Baillie-Grohmann suggested in the last years of his life that Gibraltar receive the same status as Heligoland, to the laughter of the Helgolanders and the delight of the Gibraltarians. When the same was said of the Falkland Islands, the FCO nearly had a collective heart-attack; the Falklanders agreed that it was an excellent idea and were to establish good-natured 'Twinning' of Port Stanley with both Gibraltar and Heligoland. The most interesting aspect was that the Falklanders - short of population - offered settlement on Crown Lands for those German Helgolanders and Gibraltarians willing to homestead down in the Falklands. Only a few hundred cared to do so, adding new skills to the sheep-rearing population. One Spanish politician then proposed transporting all Gibraltarians unwilling to live under Spanish rule to new lives in the Falklands, which proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm in Argentina; the Argentinos had for almost two centuries thumped the tub about their claim of the 'Islas Malvinas' as a way of getting national unity. This caused still more amusement in Heligoland, which had its own nationality to defend.
1974 saw the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East and a massive increase in crude oil prices, creating a surge in North Sea exploration and development for almost fifteen years. Heligoland profited from the helicopter and support vessel activity, a much-needed boost after the terrible disaster at the 'Popfesthus', which was not rebuilt as it was considered deangerous. Instead, the site was cleared and a large helipad constructed for Bristow Helicopters and the Air-Sea Rescue service; the disaster gave a dramatic fillip to plans to reclaim the channel between Hallem and the Lunn (Heligoland Island), to restore something not seen since 1713. Reclamation involved suction dredging thousands of tonnes of sand and mud to infill rubble dykes that gave protection from erosion. It was to take six years to compact and finish, but the result was a massive crescent shaped island which also provided a large protective anchorage for visiting shipping and doubled the pre-war size of the Heligoland Lunn. Some Helgolanders nicknamed it the 'Arabian Desert', referring to the oil prices that had paid for the work, but on the maps it was the 'Wittkliff', a reference to the white limestone cliffs that had been quarried away centuries before. Blasting and grab-dredging had brought up enough of the Muschelkalk limestone to sheath the northern shore of the new land with armour against erosion, creating a cliff almost forty feet high and a shingle beach that was - very appropriately - colonised artificially with mussels to add extra protection. Offshore, the reefs (Felswatt) were planted with kelp as a wave moderator, a scheme that was partly effective and increased the lobster and fish population.
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What about Carriers? The catapult on Heligoland makes for an interesting development tool, notto mention extra capital gained from more access to North Sea Oil. Interesting how the Commonwealth plus Northern Europe is becoming a meaningful economic bloc, what about military or strategic considerations?
All this talk of adapting blue streak for cruise missiles and satelite delivery systems has interesting suggestions for a space program too.
All this talk of adapting blue streak for cruise missiles and satelite delivery systems has interesting suggestions for a space program too.
Some Bloke, there's more to life than guns...
...This is a Heligoland TL, yes, but it's how things succeed and fail. Win some, lose some, go for variations, not wanks.
In this TL, Blue Streak is a useful satellite launcher - satnav, comms, reconnaissance, satellite broadcasting - cruise missiles launched by V-bombers and attack subs are the deterrent. A cheapo nuke programme.
The effects on the EEC are interesting - also the involvement of neutrals like Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland in EFTA.
...This is a Heligoland TL, yes, but it's how things succeed and fail. Win some, lose some, go for variations, not wanks.
In this TL, Blue Streak is a useful satellite launcher - satnav, comms, reconnaissance, satellite broadcasting - cruise missiles launched by V-bombers and attack subs are the deterrent. A cheapo nuke programme.
The effects on the EEC are interesting - also the involvement of neutrals like Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland in EFTA.
How did you persuade the US to give us Centaur stages given that the launchers can now compete with their own?