Geoffrey Nathaniel Joseph Pyke was
an English journalist, educationalist,
and inventor. During the Second World
War, Pyke proposed the newly invented
material, pykrete, for the construction of
the bergship Habakkuk (Habbakuk). He
even proposed several inventions based
on the use of pykrete and super cooled
water. Due to Pyke‘s earlier disagreements with American personnel on Project Plough, he was excluded from the
planning for Habakkuk in an effort to secure American participation.
Photo: State Library Victoria
„James, there’s something strange about the
name, isn‘t it?“
But the New Zealand officer didn‘t find it
strange.
„Sir, the best Czech fighter was called Kuttelwascher, he flew in the first squadron of the
RAF. „
„Oh my God, really? I can‘t even pronounce
that, I‘d break my tongue.“
„That‘s why he‘s called Kut. And this Clostermann, whom I met in Paris last month, he is
a Frenchman. From Brazil...“
„Oh! Those continental nations have always
been opaque. Well, then, I‘ll call you Eduard,
if you do not mind. Look, since the Soviets
have made you available that means they‘re
no longer interested in you. You didn‘t end up
in Siberia, and you‘re not a spy. We‘ve checked that. You‘re Czechoslovakian, so you‘re
our ally. I‘m suggesting that you needn‘t be
afraid to tell us more or less anything about
what you saw and did in the North. Let‘s start
with what you flew there. Tell me...“
„Nothing extraordinary sir, first the Messerschmitt 109 and when the Russians came
they gave us the Curtiss P-40.“
„So you have experience with both German
and Western equipment and you lasted two
years in polar conditions? That‘s good for us.
How come you joined the Luftwaffe?“
„After the occupation, Žatec was a German
border town, and I signed documents as a
factory pilot for my job that contained something I didn‘t understand properly, and then
it went quickly.“
„Where did you get military flight training?“
„In the Protectorate, sir, basic and fighter.“
„You speak decent English, where did you
study?“
„Self-Study. When you‘re up north for two
years, half the year the sun is shining and half
INFO Eduard - January 2022
the year it‘s night, you have to keep yourself
busy somehow so you don‘t go crazy. We
were also catching the radio from northern
Canada.“
„You didn‘t miss German radio?“
„No, it was unbearable to listen to. There was
always someone shouting madly that the Reich would win, that it had wonder weapons.
And then when that bird killed our commander, I took over and we tuned to Canada. We
also listened to Moscow, where at least it was
clear where the front was. And we also caught
Finnish radio, but nobody understood them.“
„Well, you‘ll soon get to know the Finns. You
mentioned wonder weapons, do you know
anything about them?“
„No sir, just what Goebbels kept shouting at
us from the radio.“
„I read here that you were a factory pilot in
Prague. Did you see anything unusual at the
airports there?“
„And what would something unusual look
like, sir? A Messerschmitt Schwalbe or a Komet is in every magazine a year after the war.“
„Maybe something like a big flying disc...“
„Disk? No, I haven‘t seen anything like that at
Avia.“
„Very well, James will help you deal with the
formalities. I think I‘ll make you happy, you‘re
going to Canada. And the war isn‘t quite over
yet. But you‘ll find out soon enough. „
Downing Street
number 10, July 1946
Churchill finished reading the report and looked at the Foreign Secretary.
„So the Americans don‘t want to use the atomic bomb and the Russians won‘t send us reinforcements. Don‘t they realize what‘s going
on?“
„Mr Prime Minister, the Russians are having
enormous difficulties with supplies, they have
deployed the army. They have no one to send
us.“
„So we‘ve been sending materials and supplies to the Russians all through the war, and
now we‘re on our own like in 1940.“
„Prime Minister, we must take into account
that Russia is again facing famine. The drought has destroyed their crops. We may have
to supply them again. But they have made
some foreign pilots available to us for those
new aircraft carriers. We‘re also trying to get
volunteers from every country, like in 1940.“
„Hmmm, what about the Americans? What
did Truman‘s people say about the bomb?
It would have solved it in one fell swoop. Do
they understand that time is playing against
us?“
„They understand, Prime Minister. They will
make available what they can. But the problem is that the war is officially over and they
have released a lot of people into civilian life. A
lot of vessels have started to be dismantled. „
„Then let them drop the damn bomb!“
„They say it could raise ocean levels, there‘s a
lot of snow and ice. And they also don‘t know
exactly where it‘s going to topple. They‘ve lost
almost all the reconnaissance planes they
sent out there. „
„Do we have any decoded enemy dispatches
from ULTRA yet?“
„Unfortunately not, Prime Minister. What was
intercepted in the South cannot be safely
sent over here.“
„So Bletchley Park is basically useless to us
now and we don‘t really know anything.“
Churchill, in his dressing-gown, leaned back
against the arm of his chair and watched the
glass of whisky as the ice cubes melted in it.
„The Prime Ministers of Australia and New Ze-
aland call me on the phone every day, everything is upside down there. They are horrified
and I don‘t blame them at all. Bloody bastard,
that Hitler. He‘s done it. Too bad Attlee didn‘t
win the election last year, I wonder what he
would have done with this, a civilian!
Lake Patricia, Canada,
August 1946
The seamen ashore loaded a large-caliber
machine gun. The officer supervising them
looked towards the large wooden vessel, then
turned towards the international group of airmen.
„Get down!“
He also hid with them behind a rampart.
„Fire!“
There was the booming sound of a half-inch
machine gun and the barrel began to spit
glowing projectiles into the side of the ship.
But the bullets bounced back. Some sent
a geyser of water into the air or took to the sky
with a scream, others ended up in the protective wall on the shore or whizzed over the
airmen‘s heads into the forest. The roaring
stopped.
„Stand up!“
The astonished group rose from the grass
and dusted off their uniforms.
„What you just saw is a demonstration of the
resilience of a ship made of pykrete,“ the officer announced, enjoying the puzzled expressions on the faces of his temporary subordinates. Then he added: „Pykrete is a mixture of
ice and sawdust. „
There were surprised comments in several
languages.
„Pykrete,“ the officer continued, „has about
half the compressive strength of concrete,
but three times the tensile strength! Questions? Yes, Ensign Kleinkönnig?“
„Sir, but a ship made of ice can‘t work, it
would melt!“
„And what do you see here on the lake, Ensign? Noah‘s Ark? Pykrete has excellent insulating properties. Now, let‘s move back to the
classroom...“
A block of pykrete. The image shows
a 50 mm (2 inch) thick 50% mixture (by
volume using shredded wood mulch) hit
by a single 7.62 x 39 mm rifle round (lower
impact mark) fired from 10 m (30 feet)
which bounced off the surface. It took an
additional 7 rounds (upper penetration
mark) of 7.62 x 39 mm fired from 5 m (15
feet) to penetrate the block.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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