THE SOMERTON MAN: CARL WEBB'S WORKPLACE, AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE AUSTRALIA WW2 ?, & A 2014 Re-POST

WHERE DID CARL WEBB WORK?...

...This post addresses that issue by reviewing what we know of the man and then, importantly recalling posts from this blog made in 2014...

But first, let's look at what kind of skilled work was being done in Victoria and South Australia during WW2 in particular, the enormous task of aircraft production, a task for which Carl Webb was particularly well qualified...

The organization diagram describes the production of the Beaufort Bomber in Australia during WW2.

I hasten to point out that other weapons were also produced in Australia including tanks for example. but as you will read later in this very lengthy post, there is a specific reason for focusing on aircraft production. But for now, suffice to say that those working on aircraft were by and large Instrument Fitters as was Carl Webb.

Some background for you, the main player in aircraft production was the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation until 1939 when the new Department of Aircraft Production set up the main hub at Fishermans Bend, Port Melbourne. After the war, there was a name change to the Government Aircraft Factories.

You can see that production of these aircraft was a coordinated scheme between Victoria, South Australia, and NSW. and listed below are the main manufacturing locations:

State Rail Workshops - Newport, Victoria

Rear fuselage, tail plane, elevators, fin, rudder

Department of Aircraft Production - Fairfield, Victoria

Gun turret

State Rail Workshops - Chullora, New South Wales

Front fuselage, stern frame, undercarriage, nacelle structure, observer's screen and pilot's top

structure (perspex and frame).

National Motor Springs - New South Wales

Oleo legs.

Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation - Lidcombe, New South Wales

Pratt & Whitney R-1830 twin-row Wasp engines (2-stage).

De Havilland Australia - Sydney, New South Wales

Curtiss-Electric propellers.

State Rail Workshops - Islington, South Australia

Centre section, port and starboard main planes, bomb cell floor.

General Motors Holden - Woodville, South Australia

Wing leading and trailing edges, wing tank doors, wing ribs, wing tips, tail assembly, flaps.

Department of Aircraft Production - Fisherman's Bend, Victoria

Final assembly and fitting out of aircraft.

Department of Aircraft Production - Mascot, New South Wales

Final assembly and fitting out of aircraft.

3 Main Manufacturing Points In South Australia:

1. South Australian Railway’s Workshops, Islington. 

2. General Motors-Holden’s, Woodville. 

3. Richards Industries, Keswick, and Mile End. 

In addition, the following contractors were engaged: 

• British Tube Mills, Kilburn. 

• Carr Fasteners, Royal Park. 

• Fireproof Tanks, Light Square, Adelaide. 

• Kelvinator, Keswick. 

• JA Lawton & Sons, North Terrace, Adelaide. 

• Perry Engineering, Mile End.

Manufacturing points and contractors who contributed in Victoria at the relevant times are being researched at the moment, if you have some specific knowledge that would be helpful.

All in all, there were approximately 600 companies in the Southern States that fed into and were part of this massive undertaking. 

At the end of this post we will be looking at one particular Melbourne-based business.

The Travelling Men:

We can assume with some confidence that the work would have required regular travel between Victoria and South Australia in relation to the manufacturing process. Just who went and when may possibly turn up in the records of the main organisations as well as perhaps a list of employees.

BELOW COPY OF 

OCTOBER 14th. 2014 POST

As you will read, nearly 8 years ago we took a look at the Australian manufacture of military aircraft during WW2. At the time we had the name KEAN/E and a find on the code page that gave us the name of an aircraft still on the drawing boards, The Venom. It was followed by this: X4512. As it turns out that could have been a reference number for a call for tenders for the Venom or a Melbourne telephone number. I could find no trace of an Adelaide telephone number to match that on Trove. That of course does not mean there wasn't one, it is just that it hadn't appeared in a Trove advert or similar.

However, we did get the name of H.Marks 332 St. Kilda Road. This was a lady who was involved with the Red Cross, that surname was also mentioned in an Intelligence file as being associated with the Communist Party. Let me stress that Marks was a fairly common name and the Intelligence file referred to a family with Communist connections in Melbourne and also in Ballarat.

The post is again relevant because of the information that it shares about the strength of the CPA within the aircraft manufacturing industry. It also shows a South Australian link that could possibly mean that some employees working on aircraft construction would have travelled to and from Adelaide. 

The post itself could possiblyly provide us with a link from a specific Melbourne engineering company to another death in Adelaide.

Here's the 2014 Post:

About This Post

This is a lengthy post and there's great deal of background information that I wouldn't normally include but in this case I think it is particularly relevant. To give you an exec brief of the post, what we have is a known communist whose files have been held by ASIO since March 1949, Edward John Rice. He is before a Commission of Enquiry and a man named Keane is referred to as speaking out against Rice's political position and inflammatory statements by reporting him. We also have some detail on Lawrence (Lance) Louis Sharkey the then Chairman of the Communist Party in Australia on record as having suggesting the use of killing 'scabs' and strike breakers. Six years after this Commission of Enquiry, a man with the name Keane written on some of the clothing found in his suitcase, is found dead on Somerton Beach, he had been poisoned. This man has never been identified.

Does this mean that the man on Somerton Beach was the man 'Keane' from Fisherman's Bend? Does it mean that the Communist Party of Australia had a hand in the events leading up to the discovery of the body? The only way we will find out is to investigate the information provided here, There are numerous leads to be followed up not the least of which is information and photographs of the man Keane. There are a number of links and other starting points in this post and I look forward to comments and feedback from our audience which, by the way, has now cracked 2000 visits per month.

There are a number of links at the bottom of this page that those interested can follow and find additional information.

But first, here's the text version of  a Newspaper article:

TEXT VERSION:
'Once a Communist, Says Machinist SYDNEY.-He ceased to be a member of the Communist Party before it was declared an illegal organisation, Edward John Rice, machinist, said at the inquiry today into his suspension five weeks ago by the management of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation.
In his evidence Rice told the Commissioner of Inquiry that stewards.had made a round of the various departments, and had called for applications from employees willing to join the Volunteer Defence Corps in the factory. It was considered by shop stewards that a V.D.C. should operate. Not quite 60 applications had been received. Replying to Mr. Lamaro (assisting the Commissioner). Rice said he had no knowledge whether 70 or 80 per cent. of the applications had been from members of the Communist Party. 

Referring to a report of the personnel superintendent (Mr. Edmonds) that Rice and his colleagues had tried to control the air-raid precaution organisation In the factory. Rice said that the only approach they had made to the Minister for National Emergency Services (Mr. Heffron) was through a shop committee. The statement by Edmonds that he had told Naylor, a company official, that he had been to V.D.C. headquarters and had obtained permission to form a unit was more or less correct. 

NOTE THE AUTHOR Rice said that an article in 'The Bomber' dealing with canteens was not written by himself. He was only one of an editorial board of four members which had passed it for publication. Questioned regarding the evidence by Mrs. Dawkins. manageress of a benefits society controlled by the employees, Rice denied that he had asked her for paragraphs for the paper dealing with gossip-and scandal, or that he had threatened her that if she did not give him the materials he wanted he would influence the committee controlling her activities to withdraw support from her. Rice also denied a statement made by Mrs. Dawkins that he had spoken to her about the insecuritv of her position. 

Mr. Ashburner (for the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation).- What is the organisation that you report to at Daking House every afternoon when you leave this court? Rice--I never visit Daking House. Isn't it a fact that you are in favour of a revolution in this country?---No. I am not. Do you remember when you were distributing literature in the factory telling a man named Keane that, "'My one wish above all is to lead a revolution in this country, and when the shooting starts you want to shoot fast"?- No. I never said anything like that. You produce this man- Mr. Ashburner·-Don't worry. he will be produced. (Proceeding)'

Lance Sharkey

NOTE: For researchers, There is a trail that leads by default to Lance Sharkey who was Chairman of the CPA http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=2248

(Communist Party of Australia) until 1948. This included the years 1940 to 1942 when the Communist Party was driven underground as a result of it being a banned organisation. It is said he directly contributed to the Malaysian insurrection in 1948 and in one instance is said to have told Malaysian Communists that the way to deal with 'scabs', (strike breakers) was to eliminate them. He qualified that by saying that this should happen only in the country areas and not the big cities. In particular he mentioned the mining industry.

You will note the interesting ear shape, this man could not be SM as he survived until 1968. The Ear may be of interest for other comparisons hopefully carried out by a properly qualified person/organisation. There are few images found of this man thus far, this particular one dates to the 1930's, he would have been around 52 years old in 1948.

In 1949, Sharkey was put on trial for sedition and was imprisoned for 3 years with hard labour. Was he guilty? Here's a link to an article written by Harold Rich, Sharkey's solicitor at the trial:
https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/australia/1949/sharkey-trial.htm
There is ample further information to be found on the web.

There's another link that leads to yet another Newspaper article here:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/16601061

Keane

The name of Keane or  T. Keane has long been associated with the Somerton Man Case with case being the operative word as it was in the suitcase found at Adelaide Railway Station that this name was found on a number of items including a tie, a white laundry bag and some items of underwear,

People have searched far and wide for this person who has proven to be quite elusive. Local searches extended to Australia wide searches with numerous candidates put forward; to this point, all have been eliminated. Adelaide University has long ago given up the search which I suspect is more down to the attitude of  'If it isn't a simple answer then it must be wrong'.  

Having said that, giving in when you hit a hurdle is not something that I nor colleague Pete Bowes can live with and so I put forward yet another Keane only this time, we have a link that in my view brings together a man named Keane, the Communist Party, secret aircraft manufacture and a union organiser called Edward John Rice. The link to the Somerton Man Case is via the code page where an aircraft name, the Venom, was detected adds to the puzzle, read more below. (You may recall that some time ago we posed the question of Venom or Venona, we have dealt to an extent with the Venona possibility and now we have the Venom to investigate.)

Edward John Rice

This man is of great interest and this is not meaning any disrespect to his descendants. He was a known Communist prior to the hearing described in the newspaper article that heads this post and he does have a file on NAA which you are able to search. You will find it is held by ASIO and it has been since March 1949 so we do not know much about this man nor have I been able to find any images of him. I am sure there are some quality researchers out there who could find the appropriate information and perhaps images as well as details on the Victorian Branch of the Communist Party.

That's the summation of the newspaper article, top secret aircraft production at the time of the newspaper article, Communist activity suspected and two names; KEANE as a witness to the pro Communist activities of EDWARD JOHN RICE. There are a number of other leads in the article including the Volunteer Defence Corps issue, 'The Bomber' publication and Mrs. Dawkins, the Manageress of the Employee Benefits Society.

The Code Page & The Venom

Regular visitors to this blog will recall a post made some time ago regarding the finding of the following micro words and numbers on the Somerton Man code page and beneath the letters S and A in the last line of the code:

2YRS 42

Venom X4512


Earlier investigations suggested that the X4512 closely matched a tender document for the
De Havilland Venom aircraft which was issued in 1942.

1942 was the same year that the DH Vampire Jet first flew in the UK, the Vampire being the forerunner to the Venom. Read more on the Vampire below.

For those who are interested, the orange colour is applied on to the base image on the right to highlight aspects/characters on the code page.

Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation

The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation had a facility at Fisherman's Bend in Victoria and it's main purpose through the war years was to firstly produce Wirraway fighters then Beaufort Bombers and later Beaufighters for the RAAF. In the post war years they progressed to Stirling Bomber assembly and then on to the building of components for the de Havilland Vampire, at the time the world's fastest Jet fighter and forerunner to the Venom.

The Vampire first flew in fact in 1942 in the UK and it is believed that first tenders/expressions of interest for building the Venom were also released in 1942, it taking many months and even years for an aircraft to be designed and built. An example would be the Vampire which although first flying in 1942 it was 1945 before it was in front line service in the UK and 1947 before it was produced in Australia,

Fisherman's Bend Production

The place where it all came together, all the components including engines were assembled here and each aircraft flew from the airfield adjacent to the factory.

Below is a rare promotional video showing the operations at Fisherman's Bend in 1941:

Fisherman's Bend Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation.

 

An Adelaide Connection

The smartness of the design was such that the Beauforts and later, Vampires were actually made in separate sections and in different locations including Fisherman's Bend in Victoria, Chulora in New South Wales and Islington Railway Workshops in Adelaide. In Adelaide they made the Main Plane or central components of the aircraft. What makes this information of value is that this assembly method gives us an Adelaide connection, it could be that Rice and perhaps even Keane would have travelled between Fisherman's Bend and Islington as part of their employment.

This being the case then you could ask the question, would they as employees of the CAC have
needed a railway ticket or would they have been issued with a travel warrant that was handed in on completion of their journeys?

ISLINGTON RAILWAY WORKSHOPS 1942

Chulora NSW

Chulora appeared to have been the busiest of the three locations charged with making the rear fuselage and central/cockpit/forward areas of the Beaufort:

For all researchers, Fisherman's Bend is in Victoria and the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation was set up in 1936 to head off a perceived gap between Australian and Japanese military aircraft production capability. As things transpired it was an extraordinarily wise move given the vents in Dunkirk and the UK notifying Australia in 1941 that they could not expect any further shipments of weapons or military aid for the foreseeable future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Aircraft_Factories

For those interested, here's a link to a large photo gallery of Marxists over the years: 
https://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/album/index69.htm

Northern Star, Lismore NSW, Tuesday 4th August 1942:
Dismissal of Worker COMMUNIST ALLEGATIONS DENIED

Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 4th August 1942:
NO LONGER A COMMUNIST Dismissed Man's Evidence

Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 4th August 1942:
RICE INQUIRY V.D.C. UNIT FORMED FOREMEN "ON THE MAT"

West Australian, Perth, Tuesday 4th August 1942:
AIRCRAFT EMPLOYEE. Inquiry Into Suspension.

Barrier Daily Truth, Broken Hill, Tuesday 4th August 1942:
SUSPENSION INQUIRY AT COMMONWEALTH AIRCRAFT FACTORY SYDNEY, August 3.

Canberra Times, ACT, Tuesday 4th August 1942:
AIRCRAFT WORKER Suspension Inquiry SYDNEY, Monday.

Sydney Morning Herald, NSW, Saturday 1st August 1942:
SUSPENSION INQUIRY "Political Issue Feared"

Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 5th August 1942:
Rice Suspension, Security Department Intervention
Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 5th August 1942

Inquiry Into SuspensionYou will notice that in the Daily Advertiser dated 5th August link that another man's name is mentioned, a Mr. Charles Keenan, however in another article from the Sydney Morning Herald dated 5th August he is also referred to as Frank Keenan, whether this is the same man we have as Keane is a matter to be researched. Which reporter got it right? The only definitive way to prove that it was not Keane is to research the employee names of CAC at the time. Any experienced takers?

I would stress that this at this point is a tenuous link and further research is being undertaken in the UK and here in Australia but it does seem more than coincidental that we have Adelaide, Keane, secret aircraft manufacture, ASIO and the CPA all mentioned and connected in the one post. There is another lead that I will post on shortly related to another  possible place of work.