Posted on 06/24/2007 9:59:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In 1942, the Allied forces were losing a considerable amount of merchant shipping in the Atlantic Ocean, due to German submarine forces and the lack of adequate air cover in the mid-Atlantic. The range of operating aircraft was not sufficient to cover this area and aircraft carriers were in short supply to allow for shorter range flying. Plans for an Allied invasion of Europe were also underway and it was felt that large floating platforms were needed to assist the assault forces. The Second World War was also a time when many scientists were encouraged to develop weapon technology and other military equipment to assist the war effort. Many projects that were developed were successful, such as the bouncing bomb by Barnes Wallis, midget submarines, mulberry harbours and the Pipe Line Under The Ocean (PLUTO) project. Others were not so successful and some were even incredible.
Lord Louis Mountbatten was Chief of Combined Operations and part of the work of this department was to develop technology and equipment for offensive operations. He encouraged scientists to produce their ideas, however fantastical they might seem. Many ideas did not get past the drawing stage, but others were taken up and experimented with before being abandoned. One such idea was that of an iceberg aircraft carrier, and this project was enthusiastically endorsed by both Mountbatten and Churchill.
Habbakuk was the idea of a scientist called Geoffrey Pyke. His idea was that because ice was unsinkable, the berg ships would be insulated and impervious to bomb and torpedo attacks. They would be easy to repair as water only had to be poured into holes and frozen, thus making the ship whole. The ships would be cheap to make so that a vast number could be made. The ships could be up to 4000 feet long, 600 feet wide and 130 feet in depth. They could be used to carry aircraft to protect shipping in the mid-Atlantic, since the aircraft would be able to operate at shorter ranges and could be used for an invasion force base. He christened the idea (misspelling the name in the process) after the words from Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet: “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told to you.” Hab. 1:5
The idea was taken up by Mountbatten and in December 1942, Churchill was convinced that the idea was worth pursuing. One problem had to be overcome. Ice split too easily and Pyke suggested the addition of some kind of building material could solve the problem. In 1943, two American scientists made a compound out of paper pulp and sea water which was almost as strong as concrete. This substance was named “Pykecrete”, after Pyke. Plans were drawn up for a vessel with the dimensions of 2000 feet long with a displacement of 1,800,000 dead weight tons. For the best possible results, the ship would need to be built in Canada or Russia, where the ship could be naturally frozen. The budget for continuing with the experimental ship was limited to £5000.
In the summer, a model was built on Patricia Lake, Jaspar in Canada. It became essential that the Americans were brought into the project as they would be needed to supply large quantities of steel for the vessel. Costs were already spiralling due to technical and supply problems. Mountbatten took a block of Pykecrete to Quebec to demonstrate the idea to the Americans. He intended to show them the strength of Pykecrete as opposed to ice. He fired a revolver into a block of ice which, predictably, shattered. He then fired into a block of Pykecrete. The bullet did not penetrate the block, rather it ricocheted off the ice, and unfortunately struck the American Chief of Naval Operations in the process, but without injury.
The Americans were not convinced about the project. They felt that due to technical problems, the ice ships would not be ready until 1945, and by this time, the conventional carrier fleet would be large enough to make the need for ice aircraft carriers obsolete. Churchill also gave up on the project when he realised that the carriers would cost over £6m.
The model in Patricia Lake was “scuttled” in 1943 by removing all the machinery that had been used and leaving it to sink in place. In the 1970’s remains of the model were found and studied and in 1989, a plaque to commemorate the unusual ship was placed on the lake’s shore.
Saw a show on History Chanel about the weird weapons of WWII, including iceberg carriers. Also included...
USA.Bat Bombs—hundreds of bats, kept refrigerated and loaded into bomb casings. Each bat had a small incendiary bomb with a very slow timed fuse attached. When the bomb got near the ground it would fly apart, and the bats would fly away and hide in attics, buildings, etc. A few hours later the bombs would go off, starting fires. This was actually used a few times, but was discontinued in favor of simply carpet boming cities with incendiaries.
Germany. Corner guns—special attachments to the German “Storm Rifle”, the original assualt rifle. It was a 90 degree barrell extention with a mirrored sight for shooting around corners. This one worked, and was used by special units.
USA/Britain— A 25,000 lb blockbuster bomb, the original MOAB. This bomb was long and thin with a hardened case and spiral fins. Meant to be dropped from high altitude on hardened targets. The combination of the long drop, and spiral fins meant this bomb would come down like a bullet, penetrating over 50’ of reinforced concrete before exploding, shattering any structure it hit. One bomb could just barely be carried by a Liberator bomber. It was used do destroy hardened German sub pens, which the Germans had though invulvernerable to air attack. They weren’t.
Britain—Sticky bombs. If you saw Private Ryan you probably remember where they improvise sticky bombs to destroy tanks. The originals were round balls with handles. The ball was covered in a contact adhesive, and covered with a metal case. Removing the case worked like pulling the pin on a grenade. The soldier was supposed to get close to a tank, remove the case and toss or drop the bomb onto it. Assuming he wasn’t killed by supporing infantry, there was a very real possibility that the bomb could touch his skin or clothing and get stuck. A very bad idea that saw very limited use.
There was an excellent book a few years ago about the Bat Bomb..The project was discontinued once the B-29 became operational..it had the range to reach Japanese cities...
Speaking of unusual aircraft carriers, the US Navy had two carriers propelled by paddle wheels. The USS Sable and USS Wolverine were training carriers on the Great Lakes during WWII.
My Dad had a subscription to “True the Mans Magazine” and I would read it when he was finished, (but NOT before!). I would quote from this tome and my teachers would scratch their heads!
Fascinating...
He was too far ahead of his time. Let’s say you have a floating fission nuclear reactor that can put out all kinds of heat. You then dredge ocean bottom mud from 2 miles down to the surface. After drying it out you make hemungous amounts of bubble-filled buoyant glass. You then make floating islands with it.
On about 5% of the oceans surface you could have enough space for a city-block sized island(a family of 4 on 330’x330’)for every one of 7 billion people, a “maui” for everyone. Why go running off to mars as an escapist/survivalist when you could have your own maui in pleasant tropical climes? What would YOUR island design look like?
from June.
Sorry, SunkenCiv - didn’t realize that I hadn’t put the addresses in the To: box. Will ping this out again.
Milhist ping
Bat Bomb was a fun read.
I’d noticed it, but thought that it was because of the age of the topic. :’)
In THE FLOATING ISLAND, Jules Verne describes such an enterprise. His idea was to bolt together large boxes of plate iron. In the story, an island of several square miles is constructed this way, and a conventional town is built on it.
Verne had unlimited faith in riveted plate iron. The Nautilus goes to the bottom of the sea on the strength of this construction.
Iron has its limitations although it has been used in ships since Jules Verne, think of the titanic sinking just because the iceberg caused a couple of cracks in its brittle hull. There is another natural form of artificial island : floating volcanic tuffa, which with its internal bubbles has a density much less than water.
My vision then is artificial floating, bubble filled, glass islands of SiO2 base material w/tougher borosilicate glass cladding, from a solid density of 2.34 g/cc down to around .5 g/cc. Glass is just about the most expensive common building material because of the HEAT required to convert sand into rough glass. Then still more processing is required to make your basic window pane; it works out to about $50/sf.
Ok then, you propose these floating nuclear plants over the visual horizon of major seacoast cities(a majority of the world’s population lives w/in 30 miles of an ocean beach). They make OODLES of excess heat, why not scoop up seafloor sand as raw material, make a glass furnace and shoot in bubbles as the melt cools : WA-LA : artificial islands by the hundreds, billions.
On 4%-5% of the ocean’s surface you could have a tropical “maui” for every one of 7 billion people : 4 people per 100m x 100m island(city block sized), agriculture above the water line, aquaculture below.
I know, I know, this sounds too visionary but how quickly would the world’s problems disappear if everyone suddenly found themselves on their own “maui” somewhere in the tropics? Where there is no vision, the people perish...
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