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The Spitfire

  • Thread starter Thread starter O.C.
  • Start date Start date
Rod, on Sunday evenings on one of our radio stations in Vancouver, they play a couple of
half hour programmes from the BBC World Service and last week they played a programme that covered some of the war effort for WW2 in regard to the scrap metal. It seems that the pots and pans weren't used for making Spitfires as only virgin aluminium could be used in the production and as for the mountains of scrap iron railings: very little were used and a lot of them were dumped into the sea off the East Coast. There are stories of magnetic compasses being affected by this in the areas where the railings were dumped into the sea. Also, a lot of stuff from the Midlands was shipped down South and buried. :idiot2: :'(

The household metal collection in WW2 was instigated by Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian newspaper magnate and British businessman, seemingly as a morale booster for the British as it was felt that if they contributed their pots and kettles that they were "doing their bit" Here's a website I liked probably not the one that Rod found though.
The little verse is funny. https://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online Museum/Museum Docs/helping the war effort.html
 
Jenny thats almost the same story I read, I fear anyone who reads those articles and played a part in the collection of all that stuff will be horrified.

The book "Sigh for a Merlin" is about Alex Henshaw chief test pilot at Castle Brom who flew many of the Spitfire aircraft manufactured at the Vickers Armstrong plant. He was an extrordinaray man and superb pilot, who cheated death on a number of occasions test flying new aircraft. Henshaw was the chief test pilot and oversaw about two dozen other pilots at the Aerodrome. Henshaw flew over 3000 planes during his time. Well over 12000 aircraft of all types in around 37000 test flights with a total 9116 hrs and 10 min. I think there were two pilots killed and about 130 forced landings.
 
Besides not being top quality Aluminium why it was a bit of a waste of time an estimated 50,000 kitchen utensils were given to the appeal by Lord Beaverbrook's appeal for virgin aluminium but the process to reclaim the alum was to expensive to be productive.
The same applied to all the railing that were cut down from parks and cemeteries etc. most were made from cast pig iron and not use for much only basic metalwork as it was inferior
 
Women of the Air Transport Auxiliary Service delivered the Spitfires to their bases from the factory at Castle Bromwich.
Photo shows Joan Naylor as she prepares to fly the Spitfire from the factory to its new destination
 
Thanks for the above stories Rod and Cromwell. Alex Henshaw must have been a very good pilot to have survived all those test flights of the Spitfire.

There was a lot of secrecy about so many things during WW2. It was so much easier to keep things secret in those days I think. About the pots and pans thing. It really is a let down them not being used, etc. However, on the photos you see where people are turning out for the "Turn your Pots and Pans into Spitfires" drives...people are happily bringing all they can carry and smiling for the photographers because they feel as though they were contributing something to help in the war effort. So hopefully people will forgive the government of the day for misleading them but at least making them smile and feel useful.

I can remember when all the buildings across from the bottom of Wyreley Road at the River Tame end were painted with camouflage. There were several long buildings there and an adjoining field where they used to store ammunition.

Women played a big part in the war effort at home. My mother told me several of our neighbours worked in factories and had a very hectic schedule indeed. They were always running down Woolmore Road to catch the special buses to take them to GEC, ICI and other places, leaving all the home chores undone and then rushing in after work and having a hot cooked meal on the table for the family within half an hour conjuring up something tasty using the meagre groceries allowed from Ration Book coupons day after day.

The women air pilots were not generally known about and it's good to see them on these photos. I watched an American programme not long ago where they interviewed woman pilots who had done a great job during the war.

I can remember walking through St.Phillip's Churchyard when we went to Brum on the No. 5a after the war and noticing where all the railings had been cut down. The workmen didn't do a very good job and the edges were very rough. I noticed so many gone in different places that I asked my mother where these railings in front of buildings had gone....."To make ships and planes" she told me. That's what everyone believed.
 
Thanks Jenny I hadnt seen that, fascinting article. The last line says it all too, We still owe those guys a debt of gratitude, along with their collegues in the other services.
 
Another photo of Alex Henshaw who was quite a chap, at the age of 11 he saved a boys life when he was drowning and was awarded a Humane commendation medal
also shown are are two Spitfire brooches that were sold in aid of the fund to build more Spitfires
 
Flying officer Orton of Warwick (left)and flying officer ("Cobber") Kain both "Aces" and D.F.C's photographed after a happy landing at Castle Bromwich.
Photo from the Birmingham Gazette 1940
 
A lot of people think that Castle Bromwich airfield came into being in WW2
In the Great War the airfield was being used and an amusing tale I read about was in 1916 a group of six Morris Farnam training planes from Castle Bromwich airfield took off at intervals in the direction of Coventry
flying over Shustoke reservoir one of the planes saw what he thought was one of the six planes crashed into the water,so he flew low over the water to take a look only to discover it was a punt not the wings of an  aircraft, making the manoeuvre that he did his engine cut out and he had to land in the field next to the reservoir. He got the engine going again and started to take off but ran into a ditch and was stuck.
The pilot got out of his plane and walked to Priory Farm making a telephone call for assistance.
The lorry came the plane was dismantled and loaded on the lorry only for the lorry to get stuck in the ditch nearly overturning a few hundred yards further on down Brixhill Lane.
It took a team of carthorses to pull the wagon and plane clear and on to the main road.
Top pic. Morris Farnam Trainer
Middle pic. Avro 504 training plane
Another time a ( about 1917) an AVRO 504 training plane crash landed just a few feet from Blythe Bridge
Bottom Pic.
Morris Farnam fitted with a machine gun. ( note the propeller was behind the pilot)
 
Great photos and story Cromwell. It's great to find out about the history of aeroplanes.
We have come a long way since these pictures. Those pilots were flying planes made of wood, metal struts and wire for the most part. We have a channel on cable TV called the War History Channel which is all about wars and the men and machines who fought in them in the 1900's and up. They sometimes show films of early aeroplanes and their initial flights
and also crashes.
 
ANY ONE EVER LOOKED AT THE GATE POSTS ON THE JAGUAR SITE JUST BY SPITFIRE ISLAND CHESTER ROAD CASTLE BROMWICH.
THE METAL ANGLE POSTS HAVE BUILT IN TO THEM SPITFIRE PROP'S & SPINNERS.A REMINDER OF THE GREAT FACTORY THAT PRODUCED THAT FANTASTIC AIRCRAFT.
(I AM SORRY IF THIS MAY HAVE BEEN POSTED BEFORE)
ASTON
 
It seem likely that Alfred P Maxfield was one of the first people to use the Castle Bromwich Golf links in 1909 as a take off and landing point for a aeroplane that he built himself so establishing and putting Castle Bromwich Aerodrome on the map
Alfred P.Maxfield was born on the ship PERICLES somewhere in the Indian Ocean in 1878c
In 1901 he was an Engineer Toolmaker by trade at the age of 23 living at the back of 169 Great Lister Street with his wife Nellie (Father Arthur Maxfiield, Mother Eleanor Maxfield nee Goldsmitt )
1908 he was living at 180 Victoria Road Aston and in 1909 at the age of 31 had his own Motor Manufacturing Business and was the first man in Birmingham to build and fly his own aeroplane so he must have been quite an adventurer, during the period of 27th September and October 2nd he made a number of flights from the Golf links at Castle Bromwich
So what became of Alfred P.Maxfield? Being born on a ship in the Indian Ocean tells me that his Father must have been in the Army.
In 1914 he was about 36 when the Great War broke out
Alfred Maxfield joined up in the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment as a Private No 24733 and was Killed in Action on 7th June 1917 on the battlefields of France
He is one of Birmingham's lost sons that has been found.
Below is a Postcard commemorating the flight he made with his plane in Birmingham's Masonic Hall
Thanks to Postie and Di. for helping me with this article
 
Cromwell, I see that Wikipedia has made an error by naming Alfred P. Maxwell as the first pilot, etc. Never believe everything you read! I knew your info would be correct and it is. Very interesting about Alfred Maxfield and the Aston connection also. Good story about his life and also the photo of the plane he built. He was very much ahead of his time.
Thanks for this report.
 
What a sad ending, another of our young men lost. He seems to have been a forward looking young man, but no commission for him in the great war. I bet he would have loved to have flown for his country.

Thank you for giving him a memorial here Crom.
 
Glad to hear that you have "found" Christopher Johns, Cromwell. I found him several years ago when I was doing some War Memorial research. At that time he was going around
the local Brum churchyards looking for soldiers graves and also memorials. He gave me some helpful information and we managed to deduce that there wasn't a proper War Memorial in Erdington. Just a mention in Erdington Parish Church. He has given up a lot of time to
these pursuits I know. Hell Fire Corner is an excellent site.
 
It was on April 12th 1938 that Nuffield got the contract to build 1000 Spitfires at the recently built Castle Bromwich Shadow Factory and by the October the order had increased to 4000. The Government equipped two other Birmingham Factories to build aeroplanes, the Austin Motor Company to build Fairey Battle Bombers and Rootes Organisation to build Bristol Blenheims.
By the beginning of 1940 the Spitfire should have been rolling of the production lines and the Castle Bromwich Shadow Factory to meet to first order of 1500 Spitfires but not one aircraft was finished, the Government reacted swiftly and Lord Beaverbrook made the decision to take it from Nuffields control and let Vickers Armstrong run it
Which proved to be a very wise decision and on 6th June the first Spitfire a Mark II was flown from the plant.
Nuffields had plans to also build Wellingtons and Hailfax Bombers at Castle Bromwich but on being taken over by Vickers those plans were scrapped and only Spitfires were manufactured.
A little known fact about the Spitfire production is this not all the parts were manufactured at the Castle Bromwich Plant, work was spread out to over 15000 subcontractors and everyone became involved, small firms, garages, homes, sheds etc boys and housewife's young and old worked in sheds etc, filling planning and hammering everything for the pilots seat to shaping the wings, even school workshops got in on the act and it truly was Everyones War
 
My Fathering law LEONARD BENTON was an Inspector on these Bombers at Castle Bromwich in the 40s. He had also served in the 1st WW with RFC but was invalided out after crashing his aircraft into a tree, resulting in a metal plate being inserted in his head .
 
Cromwell,
I can remember as a kid,
walking roughly 5 miles from home,
to Castle Bromwich aerodrome
to watch the aircraft flying there,
they were either Hawker Hart's or Hawker Hinds,
this would be just before WW2
 
Here's another photo of either
Hawker Hind/Hart,not quite sure
picture was taken at Cosford air Museum
 
Gung- Ho type Spitfire Poster
Bottom Pic shows SeaFires on a aircraft carrier (note the bombs slung underneath the planes )
 
Intresting fact about the Spitfire
Margaret Horton was the first female to go up in a Spitfire and the pilot had not got a clue she was there
because he did not know as she was not in the cockpit with him but clinging on to the tail fin in sheer terror.
It was standard practise for the WAAF to move the Spitfires to their take off positions and Margaret Horton was doing such a job and sitting astride the Spitfire when the pilots came running out and jumped in the plane,the pilot who never saw Margaret was Ft.Lt. Neil Cox D.F.C. in a few seconds he was airborne and climbing steadily to over a 100ft but found the aircraft difficult to manage with Margaret Horton clinging on for dear life, he soon realized the situation and landed without her falling off.
She lived with that story for the rest of life and became a celebrity.
PS
Put her name in the search engine on the web and you can read quite a lot about her
 
Miss Beatrice "Tilly" Shilling, 1909-1990 was one of the first Lady Farnborough Boffins.

Her negative-g fix (a small metal disk with a hole in the middle) was nicknamed "Miss Shilling's Orifice" and was fitted to all Merlin equipped aircraft in fighter command in 1941 and remained there until RR came up with a better Carburettor.This was to stop the engine cutting out when almost vertical in the climb,she was the lady who came up with the idea,hence Mrs Shillings orifice

Apparently the lady was also a very capable technician, raced motorcycles, when she married (an aerodynamicist named George Naylor) was presented with a set of stocks and dies by her colleagues, and was said to have turned her own wedding ring on a lathe from stainless steel.
 
Intresting Stuff Dennis, learning all the while, I have just had these two great photo's sent to me taken in the Castle Bromwich Spitfire plant first photo was taken in Loading Bay E O.4.O.3 (might mean something to someone) Making the rudders in the tail section
Second one is a Women assembling the skeleton frame of the Spitfire
Last close up of the women in the top photo (incase ya see ya Ma)
 
Great poster, as soon as I get myself organized after doing a bit on the blitz page there will be some great photo's next on this thread from the Castle Bromwich Spitfire Plant
 
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