FEATURE
Artist’s Impression of the Original Siemens Brothers Site in 1863, by E Neale c 1927
OPERATION PLUTO (PIPELINE UNDER THE OCEAN): PART 1 - THE H.A.I.S. CABLE
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n September 1941, the United Kingdom stood virtually alone against the advances of the Third Reich. They had survived the humiliation of Dunkirk, which Winston Churchill (1874-1965) described as ‘a colossal military disaster’. However, 338,226 Belgium and British troops had been rescued from the beaches between 26 May and 4 June 1940. This led to Churchill’s famous ‘We will fight them on the beaches…’ speech. Immediately afterwards, the conflict for control of the skies over Europe known as the ‘Battle of Britain’ ensued. It lasted from 7 June 1940 until 11 May 1941, when the RAF secured victory and the Luftwaffe reverted to night bombing raids on British cities. At this time, public opinion in the USA was strongly against joining the war in Europe, and it wasn’t until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday 7 December 1941 that this changed. The USA formally entered the war
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
BY BILL BURNS & STEWART ASH in Europe on 11 December 1941. Almost immediately, military strategists switched their thoughts from defence and began thinking about the liberation of Europe. To this end a British submarine cable manufacturing company with German roots would play a crucial role in these plans, and at the same time it would arguably take the first steps towards a subsea oil industry. That company was Siemens Brothers Ltd. The Siemens Brothers factory was established in 1863 by Charles William Siemens (1823-83), on land leased from the Bowater Estate, and the site is still situated on the south bank of the River Thames, at the border of Charlton and Woolwich in southeast London. It is bounded on the other three sides by Eastmoor Street, Warspite Road, and the Woolwich Road. Charles was born Carl Wilhelm Siemens on 4 April 1823 in Berlin, and he came to En-