Castle Bromwich Stories

Because of my previous interest in the stories of ordinary people, I decided to look at available examples of stories from the Castle Bromwich workers. From my recent visits to Museums I also felt that these had not been well documented to date and were worth pursuing. However sources such as the Birmingham Mail, the Science Museum website and the BBC website (WW2 People's War) had some good examples.

One of the best was a thorough account of factory life left by Megan Rees on the BBC website back in 2005.

These are some quotes from Megan's account :

"I worked on the starboard wings of the Spitfire. They were built vertically in jigs. You had to be very accurate. The skins (big aluminium sheets) were fitted to the ribs. I used to machine drill the holes in the skins and then change the tool to punch the holes so that the rivets could lie flush."

"The lives of the pilots depended on the planes being built properly so it was very important that everyone did their job correctly. We would see planes coming back for repair and they were all shot up, their propellers mangled like tentacles of an octopus."

"When on the night shift, at 9pm we would put our gas masks and clothes ready at the end of the jigs so that we could grab them when the sirens went off. We would have to run to the air raid shelters."

"I remember going to work to start the 6am shift one morning and D Block had been bombed the night before. The clothes, shoes and gas masks of the workers from D Block were piled in heaps between A and B Blocks. They were wet from the water used by the fire brigade to fight the fires. You could see bodies still in the girders of the factory roof. It is a sight that you never forget."

"Throughout the war I just remember being so very tired working long hours but you just got on with doing what had to be done. I was too tired to do anything but work and sleep but I will always have a special place in my heart for the Spitfire."