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HISTORY
Big wheels & little wheels – the story of UK-born Australian Sir Laurence John Hartnett (1898 – 1986) Australia’s “Father of the Holden” and much more
PART 46
"HAVE YOU GOT THE GUN?”
During WW2, Laurence agreed to Gen.MacArthur’s suggestion for a secret, hazardous flight from Australia to Honolulu to change America’s negative perception about Australia’s ability to make war equipment. After surviving airplane engine malfunctions, a forced detour and a harrowing friendly-fire near-disaster, Sir Laurence landed safely in Honolulu. Now on to Washington to convince our ally.
A
great Boeing flying-boat (or it could have been the Giant Hughes) so big we could crawl into the wings, took us on to California. A transcontinental train delivered us, later in the week, to Washington, our destination.
The day Bill Wasserman (the leader of the American Lend-Lease Mission) and I arrived in Washington, a New York Herald-Tribune correspondent was waiting to interview us. We told him of the encouraging progress Australia was making in her war industries, but we stressed that additional American aid, particularly in the supply of machine-tools, was urgently needed to increase our output of munitions - for both Australian and American needs. We had come to the U.S. to hasten the delivery of that equipment and to get more planes and other finished goods for Australia under Lend-Lease. The message was published. From coast to coast. Americans knew that we were in America and we had come to get as much help as they could give, as fast as it could be sent. America in mid-1942 was only just getting herself into gear for war. We in Australia realized the Americans would give first priority in all things to their own forces, and we were very careful not to come to them as beggars looking for whatever crumbs and scraps they would throw us. Bill Wasserman and I set·out to convince them that, in every sense, Australians were partners with America in the Pacific War. Although small, we were well organized. We could help America by supplying her forces in the area with food, housing, medical care and maintenance. In my bags I had details of inventions, ideas and schemes we were applying in Australia to increase our production and fighting efficiency. I reasoned that you must always give something if you want to get something back. So, before I left Australia, I collected from industry and the Services a selection of things we wanted to show the Americans: things that would not only be useful to them, but which, we hoped, would impress them with the capabilities and ingenuity of Australians. One of these items was an Austen sub-machine gun, the Australian version of the British Sten gun. It was an amazing production job, that gun. At the outbreak of war we had been desperate for a light sub-machine gun, and, when we got the first Sten sample from England, we decided to produce it by short-cut methods that had never even been tried in munitions. We set out to save time in production without sacrificing fire-power or reliability. We diecast most of the components and rifled the short barrel by putting a broach through it and then drawing it on a formed mandrill. It was therefore very easy, quick and economical to produce, and the firing tests showed it lost nothing in performance. Bill Wasserman was very impressed with it. He was anxious for the American Army chiefs to see it, and suggested that I show it to General George Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff. I put it in my briefcase with two clips of ammunition for my appointment with the General. The guard at the entrance to the building said, "Who are you?" I showed him my pass and credentials and then he pointed to the briefcase and asked "What's in that?" "A tommy-gun," I said.
''Ha, ha, ha! Oh, yes, a tommy-gun'' he chortled. "It really is a tommy-gun," I insisted. But he still thought I was joking and said, "0K sir, you are clear." Wasserman was waiting in the ante-room outside the General's office. "Have you got the gun?" he inquired. I patted the briefcase conspiratorially. We went in, and Bill did a wonderful selling job, telling General Marshall about some of the things we were doing in Australia. He mentioned the gun as one example. "Let the General see it, Larry," he said. I took it out of the case, laid it on Marshall's desk and showed him how quickly the diecast components could be disassembled and put together again. I fitted and refitted the magazine and handed the gun to him. General Marshall picked it up and cuddled it professionally. The Austen gun was the gimmick we needed to arouse the General's interest in us and our problems. He helped me by arranging meetings with some other top Army men who, he thought, would be interested in the Austen gun and other military equipment we had developed in Australia. Everywhere I went, at every conference I attended, I had something from Australia to contribute: an idea, a technique, a short-cut. This helped tremendously to win their support for our needs, and before long the stuff we wanted began to roll out to Australia in an increasing flow.
To be continued…
This is an extract from ‘Big Wheels & Little Wheels’, by Sir Laurence Hartnett as told to John Veitch, 1964. © Deirdre Barnett.
AMT DEC 2021
