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THE
OTHER BATTLE
WARTIME PRODUCTION AT BSA
In all modern wars there have been two battles: that fought by the armed
forces at the front, and that in the factories where munitions are made.
BSA had experienced the purely industrial struggle to raise production,
both in the Boer war and the First World War, but in the Second World
War a new dimension was added by the massive bombing power of the enemy.
Death and destruction faced men in the factories as well as those in the
front line, and the work of providing arms became, in every sense, the
other battle.
BSA was already fighting this battle some time before the war officially
began. By then the factories at Small heath, Sparkbrook and Redditch
were already producing a considerable number of weapons, and the only
effect of the declaration of war on September 3, 1939 was that
production went into top gear.
After Dunkirk, employees at Small Heath voluntarily went on a seven-day
week. They carried a frightful responsibility, for theirs was the main
small arms plant left to oppose the might of Germany. On their ability
to re-arm the survivors of Dunkirk with rifles, and to give the Spitfire
and Hurricane their ‘teeth’ of machine guns, depended the survival of
the nation.
The German high command was well aware of the strategic importance of
BSA’s midlands factories; they were specially marked on maps issued to
bomber crews. On August 26, 1940 the Luftwaffe struck.
One high explosive bomb and a shower of incendiaries hit the main barrel
mill- which was the only one operating on service rifle barrels in the
country. No lives were lost, but 750 precious machine tools were
destroyed. The only consolation was that some of the barrel machinery
had been moved to a basement in another part of the works, only a few
weeks before.
Sparkbrook Works, engaged mainly on the production of much needed
machine tools, was damaged in this raid, and on October 22, one section
was almost completely destroyed. Luckily a factory had been started at
Kitts Green, on the south-east boundary of Birmingham, not long before
the war- the object of providing room to expand. This building now
became of paramount importance, and almost before the roof was on
machine tools were being made there.
At Small Heath (which had become the main centre of production for the
Browning machine gun, of Battle of Britain fame),much-needed machinery
was being installed to replace that lost in the earlier raid, when
Hitler’s bombers returned. On the night of Wednesday, November 19, a
heavy raid on Birmingham began as darkness fell. The nightshift at Small
heath Works stayed at their machines until the last moment, as was their
custom, then hurried to the shelters.
From the thump of falling bombs and the thunder of anti-aircraft gun
replies, it was obvious that Small Heath and Sparkbrook districts were
receiving special attention. And the main target was the BSA works,
standing four stories tall and floodlit by the glare of flames from
fires all around.
Many incendiaries fell in the factory area, but ARP men had plenty of
practice in dealing with those, and they were smothered immediately. But
at 9.25 pm a plane came in very low and released three high explosive
bombs. Two scored direct hits on the main part of the works, the
four-storey 1915 building. The southern end of the block disintegrated
in a roaring landslide of concrete, machinery and twisted girders, with
dust and black smoke blotting out the details.
When firemen, rescue teams, and first aid workers reached the scene,
they found that a large number of people who had been sheltering in one
of the machine shops were trapped beneath the fantastic pile of rubble.
Minute’s later fire broke out. It reached a nearby ammunition store, and
the crack of exploding cartridges mingled with the earthshaking thuds of
heavy explosive bombs, which were still falling all around.
Amidst all these dangers the rescuers performed many deeds of heroism
that night. Hours after the bombs had fallen survivors were still being
brought out of the debris. But at the final count, 53 employees lost
their lives in this raid. Another 89 were injured, many seriously.
Two nights later BSA was again the major target for enemy bombers, and
more direct hits were scored. This time it was three sides of the
gunsmiths’ original 1863 building which were demolished, together with
nearby buildings. So grim was the position that the whole factory was
evacuated.
Half a mile away, Waverly Works was in flames after HE damage; it was
almost completely burned out before daybreak. When the weary men of
Small heath came to count their losses on the bleak November morning,
1,600 machine tools were destroyed or damaged- more than were lost in
the whole of the Coventry blitz.
While smoke still rose from the rubble, however, plans were put into
action for the continued production of Browning guns, service rifles,
and other munitions. After all, there was still the Redditch factory and
sub contractors who supplied it with component parts for assembly. And
there was a huge scheme for the organisation of dispersal units in other
parts of the Midlands.
Officials of the company were sent out immediately to find new homes for
the vital weapons. In some places their reception was less than
friendly; factory owners still engaged on civilian work did not relish
the thought that German bombs might follow BSA into their factories. But
once they understood the emergency, difficulties disappeared- and the
BSA men were determined to get back into the fight. By the end of
November eight factories, or parts of factories, had been requisitioned.
Another six were added the following month.
Rapid promotions were made to provide management for these new regiments
of the BSA army. Fitters became foremen, foremen superintendents,
superintendents managers. Out from Small Heath they went, each with a
lorry load of machine tools, a nucleus of skilled men, and the order
“Get in production- fast!”
How that order was carried out can be seen from the statistics of
Browning gun production. The total from Small Heath and its dispersals
in December 1940 was 894. In the following March it had risen to 3,750,
and at the height of production it soared to nearly 10,000 a month.
(Redditch and its sub-contractors supplied almost as many again).
At the peak of its war effort, the Small Heath administration controlled
67 factories, employing 28,000 people and containing 25,000 machine
tools. From this organisation came more than half the small arms
supplied to Britain’s armed forces during the war.
Other sections of the Group were fighting the same battle. Daimler’s
experiences were, in many ways, similar to those of the senior partner.
Before the war the Coventry company had been linked with other motor
manufacturers in a government scheme for aero engine manufacture, and
had been given two shadow factories. Apart from this the company
produced the famous BSA/ Daimler Scout and other armoured cars, gun
turrets, gun parts, tank transmissions, rocket projectiles, and other
munitions.
These activities naturally made Radford Works a target in the Coventry
air-raids and it received direct hits on four occasions in 1940.None of
these interfered greatly with production, but in April 1941 two more
serious raids destroyed half the factory. In all, a total of 170 bombs
containing 52,000 pounds of explosives were dropped on the works, not
counting the thousands of incendiaries.
Like BSA, Daimler’s next step was to find dispersal units. There were
some very odd places: a skating rink, a café, an ironmongers shop a
vicarage- but they produced the goods. By June production was back to
the pre-raid level.
In the rest of the Group there was perhaps, less drama- but if the blood
was missing the sweat and tears were not. Jessops worked round the clock
to supply steel castings and forgings for tanks, high duty valve steels,
and the highly specialised chrome nickel steel alloys needed for the
first jet engines; they also turned out crankshafts for naval craft and
aero engines, as well as tons of basic materials for other branches of
the war effort. Worthy of special mention were transmission parts for
Mulberry Harbour. In Durham the Birtley company produced armoured steel
bodies for scout cars and other fighting vehicles, as well as steel
fabrications for naval use. A shadow factory at Shirley, on the south of
Birmingham, was completed for BSA Guns Limited in 1941 and immediately
began making a new model of the service rifle. Even little Monochrome
played its part by hard-chroming gun and aero engine components.
Munitions were not, of course, the only product. Without machinery the
munitions could not have been made. The thousands of production
machines, and the astronomical quantities of drills, reamers, cutters
and similar equipment produced by BSA Tools, played as important a part
in winning the war as did rifles and machine guns.
At the end of the war every section of the Group could look back on a
considerable achievement. We should avoid glorifying war, in any aspect,
but it can be said that the men and women of the factories were asked to
do a tremendous job- and they did it.
The principal products of the establishments controlled by the Small
Heath section of the Group during the war were:
468,098 Browning guns plus spares equivalent to another 100,000
42,532 Hispano 20 mm cannon
32,971 Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
59,322 7.9 mm Besa machine guns
3,218 15 mm Besa machine guns
4,150 2-pounder gun carriages
68,882 Boys anti-tank rifles
404,383 Sten guns
1,250,000 303 service rifles
128,000 military bicycles
126,334 military motor cycles
10,000,000 shell fuses
3,485,335 magazines
750,000 anti-aircraft rockets
Submission: Robert Cochrane. 10/09 |
