Wartime Birmingham
Years before the outbreak of war desirability for expansion of the war plane industry resulted in the government programme of extensions into this sphere for Birmingham motor firms. The new establishments were called shadow factories. Rover had one at Acocks Green, Austin at Cofton Hackett and the Nuffield at Castle Bromwich. Other Birmingham factories adapted the engineering skills to the production of aircraft component parts.
It was primarily this aircraft industry that put Birmingham on the Luftwaffe’s map, and the bombing was the major feature of the wartime experience of its citizens, which is why a substantial portion of this book is devoted to pictures of bomb damage.
Anticipating that the city, with its considerable engineering ammunition industry, would lure the bombers, the government had made provision for the evacuation of large numbers of schoolchildren, and the day that Britain entered the war all schools were closed owing to the lack of air raid cover for the remaining children. It was months before all the surface brick shelters could be built in the school playgrounds.
Small groups of children were taught in local halls and in people’s homes, and eventually, in the continued absence of raids, some schools opened for voluntary attendance. In the general disruption there was considerable truancy, and education was an early casualty of the war.
It was primarily this aircraft industry that put Birmingham on the Luftwaffe’s map, and the bombing was the major feature of the wartime experience of its citizens, which is why a substantial portion of this book is devoted to pictures of bomb damage.
Anticipating that the city, with its considerable engineering ammunition industry, would lure the bombers, the government had made provision for the evacuation of large numbers of schoolchildren, and the day that Britain entered the war all schools were closed owing to the lack of air raid cover for the remaining children. It was months before all the surface brick shelters could be built in the school playgrounds.
Small groups of children were taught in local halls and in people’s homes, and eventually, in the continued absence of raids, some schools opened for voluntary attendance. In the general disruption there was considerable truancy, and education was an early casualty of the war.