Rewatching Redding Weddy (yet again) in order to analyse it (there’s so much to look at in each episode...).
I still love the Captain’s backstory, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say he’s been a bit more underhand and conniving than he is normally (similar to when he spoke to Kitty in S1E6).
His resolute manner makes everyone believe him instantly and I think he has convinced himself that certain things happened which may not have.
I’m not an historian at all, and military history doesn’t interest me at all... having said that, I’ve attempted some very basic research (which I’m happy to be corrected over)... and here’s my conclusion:
1. Operation William seems an unlikely name for a secret war project. When I looked at previous codenames for such projects they seem to be words other than first names.
The codename for the Bouncing bomb, for example, was Upkeep. As only the Captain ever says it late in the episode, I believe this is the Captain’s own name for his own operation.
2. That operation being hiding his letter with the bomb. I’m not sure why he wouldn’t destroy the letter, but maybe he kept it because there was a chance he could still give Havers the letter at a later date (after the war) - and there would be no need to pour his feelings into words all over again (I too am much more vocal on paper than in real life).
2a. In my mind there’s no doubt the William envelope contains a letter rather than blueprints. It’s a letter-shaped envelope! (I’m guessing blueprints would be much bigger and require a bigger envelope!).
Also, -puts away letter- -Havers comes in- “I was just thinking about you”.
2b. The real operation concerning the weapon must be known by more than 2 people - sure, maybe the technicians/crew didn’t know all the specific details, but being involved in a top secret project with explosives during war time doesn’t leave much to work out. ‘Operation William’ is only known to 2 - or at least, the Captain believes/hopes so.
3. It seems odd to me that he buried the bomb at all. There’s no order to evacuate initially so the starting “It’s vital that nothing falls into enemy hands” seems rather premature. Maybe certain things have to be sent away for safety while they still kept working? [later, "most items have been squared away”].
4. When the project was being abandoned - for whatever reason - surely the bomb wouldn’t have been left on site and just buried in a garden? (Everything else: unused explosive, other materials... would have been driven off site?!)
And surely they must have built more than one working model (ie. there’d be more than one bomb).
So, this is where I think the Captain is doing his own thing - he’s got to leave Button House but doesn’t want to take the letter with him. So he buries it with a bomb so as to (in his mind) protect the letter, maybe with the intention of coming back to get it at some point when it’s safe and appropriate to do so.
“There is something buried down there that is very sensitive.”
“Please... don’t dig. There is something down there that is potentially explosive if it gets out.”
He is anxious about the letter, the sensitive thing, being found. Mentioning that it is potentially explosive is his own threat of the bomb being hidden with the letter.
It is only the fact that Mike has lit a fire above the bomb that unfortunately/conveniently destroys the carefully written letter and causes the Captain to remember Havers all again.
