-Roger Beasley wrote
> November 14, 1999
>
> As today is the anniversary (59th I think) of the bombing of Coventry at
the
> hands of the Luftwaffe, the question has crossed my mind about how the
> British auto industry, and Triumph Standard in particular, managed to
> recover from what I understand was almost total destruction. How long
was
> it before automobiles were next produced there?
The Bombing of Coventry was very heavy and one of the heaviest raids was on
Nov 14 1940 when the cathedral was reduced to rubble all but the 303ft high
steeple and a few outer walls.
There was obviously major damage to industrial buildings, but although the
industrial centre of England was the midlands (Birmingham and Coventry),
plans had been made for such eventualities. Firstly, car production was
halted with all manufacturers, apart from essential vehicles, as all
manufacturing facilities were turned to the production of machinery for
war. In fact although some of the major factories were bombed, war
production in Coventry was hardly affected, if at all. Literally, tens of
thousands of small engineering businesses in Coventry and elsewhere were
turned to war work to produce anything needed at the drop of a hat.
Due to an initiative by Sir John Black plans were laid in Coventry whereby
essential production could also be moved from one Shadow factory or
production centre to another, as and when necessary. I.E. he organized a
huge pool of machine tools, some highly sophisticated, that could be moved
from one Coventry location to another at a moments notice. It is a known
fact that The Standard Motor Co shadow factories were the most efficient of
all in Coventry ( Sir John received his Knighthood for his work). They were
namely 'Aero 1' which was built at Canley in 1936, and 'Aero 2' built on an
80 acre sight at Banner Lane (this sight became the Fergie Tractor
production facility after the war). This plant was specifically built to
produce the Bristol Hercules radial aero engine. A third shadow factory was
built on the golf course at Canley adjacent to Aero1 and manufactured
complete Claudel Hobson aero carburetors -exacting work to tool from
scratch. It is also a fact that the production of carbs in the Standard run
factories in Coventry equaled production at the main CH factory in
Wolverhampton. The Standard shadow factories throughout the war produced
over 20.000 complete Hercules aero engines (which were also test run on
sight), 130 complete engine sets of various types per week, millions of
specialized engine parts, over 1000 complete Mosquito fighter aircraft
(manufactured at aero 1, assembled and test flown at Ansty), and thousands
of Beaufighter fuselages etc etc. - plus armoured cars of several types.
British industry was also lucky in the fact that manufacturing facilities
were often dispersed. IE Bristol aircraft main factories were in Bristol.
Rolls Royce (Merlin engines) was in Derby and had 3 other production
facilities scattered about.
My late father Ken had a near miss in Coventry. He was in charge of ten
aircraft engine test brakes based at a Rover facility in Eden Street
Coventry. The plant was bombed and several people killed. Ken was not
injured. He was then instructed to move the test facility to Barnoldswick
in the wilds of Yorkshire. He set up in half a dozen old open ended barns
and had to buy thick wool lined leather 'bomber' suits for everyone,
including himself, because of the extreme cold when they first moved up.
The Barnoldswick area (which was based on several disused cotton mills)
eventually became a top secret unit for new jet engine development and Ken
was transferred to this work.
It must also be recognized on how our American cousins paid a major part in
aircraft production. It was decided in the early part of the war (1940) to
increase Merlin aero engine production. The Ford company in Britain were
involved and, indeed, Packard in Detroit where, incredibly, '60.000' merlin
engines were produced. To set the Packard project up in the States was an
enormous problem. Thus, Mr.J Ellor (Chief Experimental Engineer at Rolls
Derby) and T B Barrington (Chief Designer) were sent over from Rolls to
Detroit. The work load for them was enormous and often day and night - it
killed Barrington who died in America. Ellor died soon after returning to
England. It must be remembered here that the Merlin engine was produced in
52 different types to suit 19 different operational aircraft specs from the
Hurricane/Spitfire fighter application, to Mosquito fighter bomber (the
fastest plane in the world at that time - with twin Merlins) to Lancaster
bomber etc. - with single stage single gear supercharger to twin stage twin
speed intercooled blower (the operational Spit Mk nines could fly at 47.000
feet). It is also interesting to note that the Merlin engine power
increases went from 1030 BHP in 1939 to 2050 in 1944 without increasing the
cc (27litres) or the rev limit (3000) - only supercharger development
(boost pressure went from 6.5 to 25lbs). This was obviously helped very
considerably with the advent of 100 octane plus fuel which we initially got
from the States.
After the war car production at Canley resumed almost immediately (Sir John
Black, when war broke out, ordered all the production lines to be carefully
stored at Canley).
Sorry guys, I appear to have rambled on a bit, but the subject interests
me. If anyone is interested in the Standard Motor Company 'Shadow factory'
System, I wrote what I think was the first in depth article published on
the subject (as far as Standard and Triumph magazines are concerned). This
article is in the maroon colored October/November 97 edition of Triumph
Over Triumph, If any FOT member requires it, by all means copy it (strictly
for FOTers only) from any member who has the mag.
All the best
Paul
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