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Only a miracle could save us. It happened and we were saved. That
summer our people gave the lie for ever to any talk of their degeneracy.
There followed the strangest and the most glorious chapter in our
industrial history. We were arsenal, garrison and front line. We had to
improvise under the very threat of invasion and shadow of extinction,
with Goring’s total bombing
force half an hour away. We had to get the Forces fully equipped at the
earliest possible date. We had to replace equipment lost in France. We
had to mobilise defence volunteers against invasion and to strengthen
our civil defence services. We had to maintain our shipping. We had to
increase our food production. We had to run our essential services so
that the life of the nation could continue. There was a shortage of
plant and of skilled men. There was, in fact, a shortage of everything
except courage and enthusiasm.
The registration of men under the National Service
Act was rapidly speeded up, so that by the end of July men up to the age
of 34 had been registered. In June and July, 1940, the rate of
compulsory enlistment was about trebled, and this was done on the basis
of registrations and medical examinations that had previously taken
place under the National Service Act of September, 1939. Employers in
the engineering industry were asked to assure themselves that the most
effective use was being made of their skilled labour. Under the
agreement reached between the trade unions and the employers’
associations, they were told to arrange their work so that wherever
possible skilled men could be released for urgent work elsewhere.
Appeals were made to workers to be ready to leave their employment and
go elsewhere if such moves would benefit the nation, and skilled men who
thought better use could be made of their services were asked to
register at the nearest Employment Exchange. Where workers were
transferred but had homes to maintain near their former place of
employment, provision was made for the payment of lodging allowances.
These measures soon brought results. At one place 450 skilled men were
transferred from on work to another, with the result that a flow of
production was released that affected nearly 10,000 workers.
Unskilled labour could not be absorbed unless
upgrading and training were accelerated. A new training drive was begun.
The Government training centres were immediately expanded. Technical
colleges and similar institutions, as well as any unused space in
maintenance shops, were pressed into service. The training
centres were thrown open to employed as well as the unemployed.
Allowances for training were increased. Instructors had to be found,
sometimes by appeals to employers to release suitable men. But the
greater part of the training, particularly for simple processes, would
have to be done in the engineering workshops themselves. Employers were
told that they would have to make the very most of their skilled labour
and dilute it thoroughly by reorganizing their own shops, promoting
their skilled men and taking on more and more unskilled men and women.
Machine and machine tools would have to take the place of long
apprenticeships. An unprecedented level of mass production would have to
be reached.
During those long, hot, summer days the British
people worked as they had never done before. War factories were working
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and all holidays were
cancelled. The statutory control of the hours of women and young
persons was relaxed. The demand for longest possible engineering
shops were keeping their men at the benches and machines 75 hour a week,
and in one firm there were men who, it was found in August, 1940, had
been doing a 76-hour week since mid-May. A works manager in metal works
put in 125 hours in one week for a couple of months. These hours were
maintained often under appalling conditions of physical discomfort –
for this was one of the hottest and dried of our summers – but there
were few complaints while it was still felt that the country was in
danger. It was impossible, however, to maintain production at this
breakneck place. A reaction was inevitable. Medical men pointed out that
such long hours were dangerous to health and economically unsound.
Production began to fall. Enthusiastic improvisation had to give way to
large scale planning.
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