How Castle Bromwich took Spitfire production to new levels
THIS incredibly rare photograph provides a unique insight into work at one of the war effort’s most important factories.
This is the production line of the Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham – a hub of industry that produced 12,000 of the famous fighters.
The picture has been provided by Shirley’s Steve Richards, author of fascinating book on the Blitz, The Luftwaffe Over Brum.
Precise details to go with the picture are sketchy, but Steve knows it was taken no later than 1942.
“The reason is the RAF symbol, the roundel. In 1942, the outer ring, which is yellow, was made much thinner and the red dot in the middle much thicker.”
The part Castle Bromwich played in winning the war has been immortalised by the artwork on ‘Spitfire Island’ on the Chester Road outside the factory.
Known as The Sentinel, the award- winning, 16-metre sculpture, unveiled in 2000, was created by Cradley Heath artist Tim Tolkien, the great-nephew of famous writer JRR Tolkien.
Quite frankly, it was Birmingham that made the Spitfire king, despite the fact the fighter was initially built and designed by Supermarine Aviation Works in Southampton.
Parts for the planes were made in factories across the country, including Cadburys at Bournville, and assembled at Castle Bromwich. The planes were then towed over the Chester Road to an RAF airfield for testing.
The operation was initially to be run by the Nuffield Group, the company behind Morris Motors, but following teething problems, Vickers took over.
It was in 1935, four years before World War Two broke out, that the Air Ministry informally approached Morris Motors, as a major manufacturing facility, to see how quickly its Cowley plant could be turned to the production of aircraft.
A formal plan to boost Britain’s aerial arsenal was drawn up in 1936, known as the “shadow factory” plan, which saw the Air Ministry buy up farm fields and a sewage works next to Castle Bromwich Aerodrome in 1938 for a plant to supplement Supermarine’s original factories in Southampton in building the Spitfire.
Construction began on July 14, 1938, and an initial order for 1,000 Spitfires was placed on April 12, 1939. It was the largest factory of its kind in Britain, employing 12,000 people. The £4 million price tag was funded by the Government, and Morris Motors, under Lord Nuffield, first managed and equipped the factory.
But in May, 1940, due to in-house issues, it failed to deliver on a promise to produce 60 Spitfires a week from April, leading the then Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook, taking control of the factory.
The move saw experienced managers, staff and workers from Super- marine sent in and control of the factory handed to Vickers-Armstrong.
It heralded the start of a new era in Birmingham. By the end of June 1940, ten Mk IIs had been built, 23 in July, 37 in August, and 56 in September.
Eventually it became the UK’s largest Spitfire factory, producing up to 320 aircraft a month and building more than half (12,129) of the estimated 20,000 fighters by the time production ceased in June 1945.
The plant also produced 300 Lancaster bombers and 50 Seafire 45s – the naval version of the Spitfire.
Surviving factory workers still vividly remember watching and hearing famous test pilot Alex Henshaw first take to the skies in the original Spitfire prototypes, with their famous throaty roar, from the old airfield, off Chester Road.
Dignitaries who visited the airfield included Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American president’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Superb website www.staffshomeguard.co.uk revealed the memories of former employee George Barton, a production line