What Did Your City Do During The War?

Liverpool had a factory making Bren guns during WW2 - That much I know as one of the ladies making them is Andrea's Grandmother.

Your right Andy ... There where actually two Royal Ordnance factories in Liverpool, the one in Fazakerley produced machine guns and rifles, while the other in Kirkby made detonators and shells.

Regarding Blacksnakes answer there was also Roots Aircraft Factory in Speke Liverpool and Cammell Lairds Birkenhead both vital to the war effort

The Rootes Works in Speke was turning out 60 Halifax Bombers a week. There was also the Littlewood's factory in Walton Hall Avenue that was given over for the making of Wellington Bombers.

 

We were a long way from the front, but Baton Rouge, Louisiana contributed it's share to the war effort. Here's a few items right off the top of my head;

1. Standard Oil, now the Exxon Refinery produced vital petroleum products for the war effort
2. The ROTC program at LSU produced the most officers for the US Army and Army Air Force, second only to West Point.
3. At Harding Army Air Field (now the Baton Rouge Metro Airport), P-40, P-47, B-26 and B-17 pilots were trained, as well as supporting aircrew and ground crewmen. Also Axis POWs were housed there.
4. The Port of Baton Rouge was and still is the largest inland seaport in the world. Many ships made calls here, carrying war materials from here to where they were needed.

The population of Baton Rouge doubled just about overnight when the war started. The 1940 population count was around 15,000. By wars end, it was at 50,000. People streamed in from the rural agricultural areas to work in the factories and refineries that popped up to support the war effort. It all adds up.

 

Your right Andy ... There where actually two Royal Ordnance factories in Liverpool, the one in Fazakerley produced machine guns and rifles, while the other in Kirkby made detonators and shells.

The Rootes Works in Speke was turning out 60 Halifax Bombers a week. There was also the Littlewood's factory in Walton Hall Avenue that was given over for the making of Wellington Bombers.

I have been just informed that she (Andrea's Grandmother) made Bren Gun Parts in what was called the Automatic Telephone Company before the war.

Cheers
Andy

 

I was doing some browsing today and fell on some info about Leeds, where I live, and what it was doing during WW2 manufacturing wise.

It appears this great city <cough> was home to three big companies:

Avro, Vickers and Blackburn.

By the end of the war Vickers had turned out some 9,000 pieces of Light and Medium Guns for the British Army.

Blackburn made the Skua, Swordfish and Barracuda for the Royal Navy in Leeds.

Blackburn Skua


Avro used what is now known as Leeds/Bradford Airport to test it's aircraft before delivering them to the RAF.

East of Leeds in Barnbow near Garforth the Royal Ordanance Factory built a factory on a 60 acre site employing some 3,000 people, including 2,000 women, making guns for the Royal Navy and the Army, I believe this site was involved with up armouring the Sherman tanks at some stage fitting them with a larger 17 pounder gun, main armament and turning them into 'Firefly's'. North East of Leeds was another factory in Thorpe Arch that was involved in the production of ammunition, primarily cartridge filling.

Sherman Firefly

Some of the companies in Leeds and their manufacturing roles after the outbreak of war:

Greenwood and Batley manufactured munitions, as did Mann’s factory in Hunslett. Burtons started making military uniforms whilst John Fowlers Engineering Company in Hunslet, originally a coach maker, switched to making tanks and other fighting vehicles. Fairbairn, Lawson, Combe, Barbour Ltd. Originally a manufacturer of textile machinery, made mortar barrels and other munitions at the Wellington Street Plant.

Oxley’s Mineral Water Company began producing Coca-Cola from a special concentrate in 1943 for American troops posted in the area. Charles H. Roe Ltd, at Cross Gates Carriageworks in Austhorpe Road, converted the chassis of hundreds of private cars to ambulances and mobile canteens. They also managed to produce 14,826 accumulator trolleys which were used to start aircraft engines on runways.

In early 1940 during a 'Warship Weeks' campaign Leeds adopted the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and when she was sunk in 1941 by a U-Boat the People of Leeds raised £9,000,000 for a replacement. The target was only £5,000,000. Leeds still has a close affiliation with the current HMS Ark Royal with many of her compliment coming from the Yorkshire area.

HMS Ark Royal after being torpedoed


Horsforth in north west Leeds, held a 'Warship Week' fund raising event in 1941 and raised £241,000 which was used to make HMS Aubretia. This corvette was involved in the capture of the German U-Boat, U-110 and the capture of an Enigma Machine.

HMS Aubretia



I'm sure there is much more but for the time being......What did your city do during the war?

Just to add to the above:

I was speaking to a lady today and she told me she worked in Stourton (Leeds Border) for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) during the war making detonators for bombs.

 

Drew -
The Vickers factory in Leeds also made many Churchill Tanks along with the Valentine whereas the two cities I lived(sic) in during the war before being called up- Coventry and Birmingham made just about everything from needles to battleships and survived a few bombs.....
Cheers

 

During the early nineties I worked at a location in the Scarborough area of Toronto. Every few years a large sink hole would emerge in the parking lot and would have to be filled in. I found out much later that our building was sitting on the former site of the General Engineering Company (Scarboro), Geco.

The source of the sinkholes was the vast labyrinth of underground tunnels which connected the old buildings and galleries. The main tunnels were 5,254 feet in length from which another 8,696 feet fanned out to the buildings – a total linear length of 13,950 feet. The main function of these was to protect from the elements (and enemy bombers??) such necessities as service lines for water, electric power, steam and compressed air, underground transformer vaults and switch rooms, and to simplify the installation (below the tunnels) of sanitary sewers. They also served to isolate the work stations in the event of an explosion.
Many of the tunnels remained intact and until the site became a giant mall 10 years ago, it was possible to walk the underground routes.

The Geco plant was built in 1941 and employed over 5,300 people in the production of explosives and munitions. During the over four years of life at GECO (closed in 1945), a grand total of 256,567,485 fuses/primers/tubes/gaines/tracers/igniters etc. were filled—without one fatal accident.

 

Tim

Scarborough?
I had no clue. Interesting stuff and thanks for posting.

Randy

 

As a Londoner, born within the sound of Bow Bells (and therefore automatically a Cockney) I can give a very simple answer

It survived !!!

Whilst not technically a Londoner (i live in Romford that was Essex pre 1965) im closer to London than anywhere else so i can attest to that fine gent's remarks

 

I was born in Northampton and I found this

BBC - WW2 People's War - Early Days of Radar Manufacture in Northampton
It appears radar units were built there.

Then I moved to Milton Keynes which includes Bletchley, and we all know now what happened there.

 

Well let's see ...

1941 Germans come
1943 After hard fighting Germans retreat, Partisans liberated place
1943 Partisan retreat, Germans come back
1944 After hard fighting Partisans took part of the place than retreat
1944 Germans retreat without fight , Partisans liberated place again and stayed there until end of the war

 

Drew
I always thought that Fowlers built Locomotives of the steam kind, my father used to haul sheet steel from Sheffield to Fowlers before the war.

Also Horsforth gave Avro Dobson who with Chadwick did wonderful desgins for bomber aircraft.

 

Tim

Scarborough?
I had no clue. Interesting stuff and thanks for posting.

Randy

On the east side of Warden Ave., south of Eglinton. I believe a Walmart store now stands on the site.
You can only hope that they left a few explosives behind!!

 

Canuck - was that the "Golden Mile" at one time when I was living there - 1957 ish

Cheers!

 

Canuck - was that the "Golden Mile" at one time when I was living there - 1957 ish

Cheers!

Good memory Tom. It absolutely was.

The GM plant and Golden Mile Chev Olds were just east of that location on Eglinton.

 

Scarborough's Golden Mile Historical Plaque

 

Tom

On your next visit to the Liri Valley, please do stop in to Toronto. Tim and I will buy you dinner.

Cheers from many provinces to the right.

Randy

 

Randy - that's extremely civil of you - I shall be hungry by then I guess ! If Paul ups his schedule it could be next year...
Cheers

 

Randy - that's extremely civil of you - I shall be hungry by then I guess ! If Paul ups his schedule it could be next year...
Cheers

Tom,

You better make sure that Randy isn't talking about the drive through at Hortons and that dinner includes refreshments! I noticed that he put my name first on that offer!


Tim

 

Canuck -
I took the fact that he had your name first indicated that he would be picking up the tab......my son tells me the Four Seasons is nice !
Cheers

 

Bromyard, a rural town in Herefordshire, was one of those places which also served but in a small way.
It played host to the US Army 42nd Field Hospital for a short time before D Day.
Five large country houses were used to house the Westminster Public School evacuated from London.
A circus was also evacuated to Bromyard but I have for gotten its name. The ladies of the Land Army helped the farms keep going while the men went too war. No bombs were dropped, unlike the nearby town of Leominster which suffered a fataly injured cow.