• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Austin In Ww2

  • Thread starter Thread starter margaret sheridan
  • Start date Start date
M

margaret sheridan

Guest
Hello,
My father George Luckman was born 32 Newtown Row Aston in 1902.
He often talked about this life in Brum and several times a year took us there on days out.
One day he took us to the Austin Longbridge works and stood at the gate and told us he had spent many years working night shift there and even worked there during the second world war.
Another time he took us to British Camp Malvern, and we stood at the high point and he pointed out and said "I was in the Home Guard and stood here and saw Brum all a blaze !"

Years and years have gone by now and Dad is dead, but I often wondered what did they make at Longbridge that was so special that Dad was'nt "called up" to fight ? After all he was young enough to go was'nt he ?

Any help much appreciated
Kindest Regards
Margaret Sheridan
 
Was "working at the austin" regarded as a reserved occupation then ??
My father would have only been 37 when war broke out.

Any thoughts much appreciated
Margaret
 
margaret,
Of course I'm much, much, much too young to tell you first hand :wink: but I think the reserved occupation depended on the skills of the individual - i.e. if you were a highly skilled tradesman who couldn't be replaced by an unskilled female (taking my life in my hands there 8) ), you're occupation would be reserved.
 
My Grandfather, James Brookes, was employed as a sheet metal worker by 'The Austin' for many years, including WW2. I recall him telling me that they made the Faery Battle in the early part of the war, but they were also later in the war involved in manufacturing the fuel tanks and the rest of the wings of the Halifax Bombers.
 
Austin in wartime

In the war a new part was built onto the Austin and was named Austin Aero. It was one of a number of "shadow factories" all heavily camoflaged built around Bham. I often watched large aircraft wings coming down on ahuge lift and then loaded onto long RAF lorries known as Queen Marys about 60 ft in length There was also an airfield alonside the factory The factory did attract some daytime raids from machine gun planes
 
The Stirling Bomber,Horsa Gliders,Shells,Armaments,Jerry Cans etc was made at Longbridge WW2
 
I spent 11 happy years at 'The Austin' being one of the many made redundant in 2005. :( I spent a lot of time in the Flight Shed which when I was there was used to build and test new development engines and vehicles.

The most famous aircraft to come out of Longbridge during the war were the Hurricane fighter, the Stirling and the Lancaster Bomber. There still remained (last year at least) a warren of underground tunnels in which these partly built aircraft were moved from the flight shed to east works and vice versa so that they could not be spied on by the enemy above.

The factory in general was turned into an important manufacturing base at the start of the war... it increased it's number of employees threefold.

Janny
 
Jannywanny, Even in the Great War of 1914-18 Longbridge were making aircraft here is a painting of one of the ones they built SE5a, during the Second World war they also played a major part in building the Churchill tank making the bogies for the track, and other parts.
 
Nice pic Cromwell, I'm going to send it to an ex colleague who worked at Longbridge all of his working life. He has been researching the plant for many years. I'll see if he has any other gems to offer to this site.

Janny
 
Jannywanny, Tell him to get the Birmingham at War Vol 1 & 2 by Alton Douglas there is a lot of photo's in the taken at the Austin in them as well as a photo of the plane( in the post above) on the production line
 
I will get a message to him Cromwell. I know he's got a good few copies of unpublished piccies from the libraries at work, salvaged before we left. I'll have to see if I can obtain copies of them.

Janny
 
Jannywanny,Tell him if he lets us have copies of his pic's I will give him all mine I have of Longbridge (about 12)
 
I caught a snippet on the local news at 6.30 p.m. on Monday night, can't remember whether it was ITV or BBC but a new book on the history of the Austin works has been published by two men, one a local vicar, and the programme showed a few clips including the tunnels that Janny mentioned. Sorry I haven't got fuller details. Just remembered it was ITV.
 
this is the Fairey Battle Bomber
that was produced at the Austin
by the time it went into production
it was already out dated by the Spitfire & Hurricane
 
The new book I mentioned in a previous post about the Austin is called "Making Cars at Longbridge, 100 Years in the Life of a Factory" by Gillian Bardssley and Colin Corke, published by Tempus at £14.99
 
Hi,my dad worked all through the war in West works as a panel beater.His job was classed as a "Reserved Occupation" as he was working on the bodies of fighter planes.To do "his bit" he joined the home guard so he not only worked at the Austin but watched for German bombers at night trying to damage the Austin factory.Up untill he died he could not hit a nail straight into a piece of wood,he had used planishing hammers for 30 odd years and this had affected his strike to a glancing hit to "draw" the sheet to the right shape.
 
My late Mother In Law worked at the Austin works . I believe she made wiring looms for aircraft. Then newly married her husband worked in a factory in the Welsh Valleys welding bomb racks. When the war finished he refused to serve in the Army on call up, despite numerous attempts to enlist during the war. They did not want him when the war was on so no point having me when its finished was his stance. He attended a couple of interviews and they then forgot about him.
 
They built 11,600. spitfires at the East works,out of a total produced nationwide of 22,000.
Considering it's past,how sad it is to see Longbridge today.
 
Dad was in a reserved occupation at Austin's as he was a Machine tool fitter. He was there from the age of 17 until he was 63. He would be so upset if he had seen it as it now is. We always used to say he had got Austin motor works stamped through him like a stick of Blackpool rock
 
My dad was also in a reserved occupation although he'd tried to enlist, they sent him back - he was a sheet metal worker and worked on Spitfires etc. at the Austin and other factories - I think he was a fire fighter as well.
 
The Austin Utility pickup was often seen on airfields and was much used by postwar commercial operators, the K2 ambulance and K6 truck are other vehicles of which preserved examples still exist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top