de Havilland Venom
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'.
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.
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:
Below is a rare promotional video showing the operations at Fisherman's Bend in 1941:
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| 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:
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 background, 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.
For all researchers out there, Fishermans 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Aircraft_Factories
I would stress that this is a tenuous link at this time 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.
You can read more about Keane on Pete Bowes blog...