Salford and the Spitfire Fund

Now as stories go it is a very small one, but then again it is about Salford and does also allow me to return to the Spitfire Fund and the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges.

Cover of the Spitfire Fund book, 1940

In 1940 the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges had been going for 70 years and was dedicated to helping destitute poor children across the twin cities.

And in the August of that year, the Manchester Guardian reported that “the boys and staff at the boys home in Broughton which is controlled by the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges” collected £4 5s 6d towards the Spitfire Fund.*

The Fund was established in the spring of 1940 and encouraged towns, and businesses along with individuals to donate money to the cost of making a Spitfire.

Spitfire lapel badge, 1940

The cost of making one of these fighters was about £8000 – £12,000 but the target set for donations was £5000 which would pay for the airframe, and once that sum had been achieved the donor could have their name or a caption written in letters four inches high in yellow paint on the fuselage.

It was of course a brilliant piece of propaganda allowing individuals and groups to be part of the war effort and particularly to identify with the pilots fighting in the Battle of Britain.



So each of the stamps carried the message THE BRITISH EMPIRE STANDS FOR WORLD PEACE AND SECURITY DEFEND IT, and on the inside page of the book of stamps under Objects was the message, “The public are invited and urged to co-operating broadcasting that for which the British Empire stands by affixing to the back of all correspondence one of the EMPIRE STAMPS.  

The stamps

Every letter passing through the post should carry this message.

Fifty per cent of the selling price is to be allocated to the Spitfire of Fighting Plane Funds. It is essential that Britain should dominate the air to avoid world disaster.  

We have the splendid men, but they must have the best aircraft and plenty of them.  Please help these two vital objects.”

And the Salford boys did their bit.

Location; Salford

Pictures; Spitfire Stamp Book and lapel badge, 1940 from the collection of David Harrop

*Gifts For Fighter Aircraft, the Manchester Fund, the Manchester Guardian, August 22, 1940

Pictures from our past …… 80 years ago

Now, if you grew up in the 1950s, you grew up against the backdrop of the Second World War.

British cinemas were full of films of the conflict, our cities and towns were still scarred with bombsites and pretty much every adult I talked to would have a story of what they did in the war.

Not that that many of them volunteered their story.

In our case my parents and grandparents only reluctantly offered up their experiences, and in the case of mother it was over shadowed by the loss of her brother wo died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp aged just 21.

Both he and mother were in the R.A.F., while my father and grandfather were in reserved occupations, and an uncle had been called back to the Black Watch, and would eventually end up in Austria administering a small town.

Nor was I alone, because all my friends had family who had been caught up in that conflict.

And so we took it all for granted, and over the years since, I have encountered hundreds of images of the war.

Even so I was pleased to see that Ancestry which is one of the leading genealogical platforms has released a series of photographs to commemorate the Battle of Britain, 80 years ago.

The collection includes the usual ones of young men from Fighter Command waiting by their planes on an “airfield somewhere in Britain”, or returning from a “sortie", but there are also plenty of the maintenance crews, as well as those of Bomber Command, and together they offer up a vivid picture of a moment in that war.

Location; “airfields somewhere in Britain”

Pictures; July 1940 Fighter Pilot returning after a battle with the enemy.  Fox Photos WD 6152, and an R.A.F. Fighter Station ‘somewhere over England’ which show scenes on the landing field when men and machines had returned from a battle in the skies with enemy aircraft.

Pilots waiting by the Hurricane Fighter planes all ready for action, FOX WD 6169WD 6151.

Men of the R.A.F. running  into action with their machine-gun during training”










*UK, Historical Photographs and Prints, 1740-1989, World War 11, Ancestry

With Charlie and Chippy in bombed out London on February 5th 1941 and the telegraph message that all was well

On leave , 1941

There is something quite sobering in realizing that events which were still fresh in many people’s memories when I was growing up are now 79 years old.

For my generation the Battle of Britain was still recent history.

I was born soon after it began and I grew up with family stories of watching the vapour trails in the skies over Kent and those old black and while films of “the Few.”

Later still on warm summers evenings we would drive out to the Kent pubs some of which were close to the old RAF stations.

But 75 years is a long time and it is easy to take the events for granted after all they are well known and the significance of those few months in the summer of 1940 can get lost in the bigger picture of a war which involved millions and was spread over the continents of the world.

The Line Book

To do so of course is to lose sight of what those months meant to the people who lived through them from the pilots who fought in the skies, the ground crews tasked with keeping the plane s airworthy and the backroom men and women maintaining the radar stations and plotting the incoming enemy aircraft.

Added to which were the families of all those in the front line, watching from a distance and always prepared for the worst.

It is not easy to get a real sense of what all that meant but sometimes you can get a glimpse.

And this month I have been lent the Line Book of 222 Squadron who fought in the Battle of Britain.  The book which is really a day to day record of what went on belongs to my friend David Harrop who acquired it after it had been found in a skip.

Charlie and Chippy in London......... "B flight holding its end up" 1941

So over the next few weeks I want to share this very human set of stories, but I am beginning with a telegram which comes from February 1941.

By then the battle had been won and 222 squadron after a spell in Scotland was back in the south of England on “offensive duties.”

And on Wednesday February 5th, “Chippy and Charlie” telegraphed F/Lt Van Mintz D.F.C., with  “just a line to let you know B flight is holding its end up in London.”

All I know of the three is that F/Lt Van Mintz D.F.C.,was according to David, "Brian Van-Metz a South African ace known to his mates as jeep jeep," and "Chippy was Sergeant D J Chipping."

In time I might be able to identify all three but for now it is just one of those tiny pieces of the human story.

Chippy and Charlie were on leave from RAF Coltishall but felt the need to touch base and no doubt would soon return and perhaps will appear in the line book.

We shall see.

Picture; telegram dated 1941 from the collection of David Harrop

Knowing your onions in 1940 ........ wartime propaganda with 222 Squadron

Now I am looking forward to seeing the original of this photograph which David tells me comes from New York.

It will be a fitting end to the story which began when he lent me the Line Book for 222 (Natal) Squadron.*

Line Books are rare and this one was nearly lost and only survived because it was found in a skip, which made its way on to the market and in the fullness of time David came across and added to his collection of war time memorabilia.

And it is a wonderful find because Line Books were the unofficial record of RAF squadrons put together by the pilots and kept in the mess.

So here are comments on operations that were flown including bitter sweet reflections on what happened in the air along with pictures poems, and telegrams sent by men on leave.

It covers the period just after the Battle of Britain goes on to record the moment the squadron was equipped with jet fighters in 1945, and its brief time as a missile unit before disbandment in the 1960s.

And while the book was started just after the momentous events of summer 1940, many of the men mentioned will have fought in that battle.

But today it is that picture which I am drawn to and the caption which appeared with it.

I am not sure of the date or which newspaper it appeared in but here is a wonderful piece of war time propaganda, which combines the seriousness of war, and a light bit of banter.

And along with that a tiny bit of factual information offering up that “the Natal Fighter Squadron ........ is paid for by the inhabitants of Natal (South Africa).  Among the pilots are many South Africans and many of the ground staff came from Rhodesia.  Enough money was contributed to Keep a full squadron in the air at all times.”

All of which reminds you that in both world wars there was a huge “voluntary element” which was partly because we were cash strapped but also because getting everyone to make a contribution was a winning piece of propaganda.

So along with war bonds there was of course the Spitfire Fund many other drives for the war effort.**

But I shall finish by returning to the picture and the story, which continues “the Natal Fighter Squadron in England have sown their onions behind barbed wire!  And here are some of them at work on the allotment.  

They find it a change from the routine work of “bagging” German planes.

A flight-lieutenant from South Africa has seven Nazi planes to his credit with a probable five more ....... he certainly knows his onions!”

Today it is easy to be cynical at the style of the propaganda and even back then I suspect there will be some who pointed fun at its jokey delivery but this was all in earnest and those men in the picture were doing the real thing.

So I am pleased that the Line Book is now in David’s possession who I know will look after it and will refer to it in his current exhibition on the Battle of Britain in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.




Pictures; news clipping, of pilots from 222 (Natal) Squadron, date and source unknown from the Lone Book of 222 (Natal) Squadron, courtesy of David Harrop

*The Natal 222 Squadron, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Natal%20222%20Squadron

**The Spitfire Fund, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/remembering-battle-of-britain-part-2.html

Remembering the Battle of Britain ................ part 2 the Spitfire Fund

Book cover

I grew up with the Spitfire Fund although to be strictly accurate by the time I was born the war had been over for four years.

But stories of the Battle of Britain, the “Few” and the Hurricane and Spitfire were still very much part of my childhood.

That said until recently I had never come across the hard evidence for the Fund.

I can remember talking to Frank Cropper who collected for the Fund in Ashton-Under-Lyne and had seen the odd photograph but that was pretty much it.

But today I am looking at a book of 24 Spitfire Stamps which sold for one shilling with half of the proceeds going to  the Fund.

Lapel badge

Now as way of raising money for the war effort it was a clever idea.

It was established in the spring of 1940 and encouraged towns, and businesses along with individuals to donate money to the cost of making a Spitfire.

Now the cost of making one of these fighters was about £8000 – £12,000 but the target set for donations was £5000 which would pay for the airframe, and once that sum had been achieved the donor could have their name or a caption written in letters four inches high in yellow paint on the fuselage.

It was of course a brilliant piece of propaganda allowing individuals and groups to be part of the war effort and particularly to identify with the pilots fighting in the Battle of Britain.

Objects

So each of the stamps carried the message THE BRITISH EMPIRE STANDS FOR WORLD PEACE AND SECURITY DEFEND IT, and on the inside page of the book of stamps under Objects was the message, “The public are invited and urged to co-operating broadcasting that for which the British Empire stands by affixing to the back of all correspondence one of the EMPIRE STAMPS.  

Every letter passing through the post should carry this message.

Fifty per cent of the selling price is to be allocated to the Spitfire of Fighting Plane Funds. It is essential that Britain should dominate the air to avoid world disaster.  

We have the splendid men, but they must have the best aircraft and plenty of them.  Please help these two vital objects.”

Stamps

The book and the tiny lapel badge may seem small stuff when compared to the official documents, the memoirs of the great and good but they are an important piece of the war’s history.

Now I know if I go looking I will find more on the Fund its organisers and the daily grind of walking the streets collecting the money however small but for now that is it.

Although I rather think I might go up and visit the Lancashire County Archives where they have some promising material on the Spitfire Fund including a fascinating photograph of a group photograph of the presentation of £5,000 cheque to the Red Rose Spitfire Fund from the Lancashire Constabulary and Wardens Service, taken at Northwood, Old Trafford, on June 17 1943.**

But that is for another time.

Pictures; Spitfire Stamp Book and lapel badge, 1940 from the collection of David Harrop

*Brian Jackson, Lancashire County Archivist, reproduced from Fylde Spitfire Memorial Fund, https://fyldebbmfund.wordpress.com/view-fylde-district-spitfire-memorial-fund-documents/lytham-st-annes-its-mark-vb-spitfire-w3644/

** Spitfire Fund M29/01/14] COVERING THE PERIOD 1940-43 reference number MBLS/7/11 & PLA LC31/103-05 & 22, Lancashire County Records, http://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/calmview/Overview.aspx

Remembering the Battle of Britain ................ part 1 stories from 222 Squadron

The Battle of Britain

January 1 1941

Now the event has slipped into history and today that battle which began 80 years ago is now far enough away to be the subject of serious historical debate.

A generation of historians who were not born when the “Few” took to the skies have looked at the event with that mix of hindsight and a knowledge of the bigger picture and inevitably some have viewed it differently from how it was portrayed in 1940 and indeed how I saw the event as a boy growing up in the 1950s.

For them events like the invasion of the Soviet Union and Pearl Harbour maybe more significant and a re-evaluation of the Battle might suggest that the the final outcome turned on the decision by the Germans to switch to bombing our cities.

And this month one historian writing in the BBC History Magazine explored the strengths of the two air forces, their logistical support and the key decisions taken by the  RAF command concluding that the Luftwaffe was more at a disadvantage than some interpretations would suggest.*

But as valid as all that is, it doesn’t detract from the heroism and sacrifice of the men and women who were involved, from the pilots who took to the sky, the ground crews who kept the planes flying and those in radar stations across the south of England.

And so over the summer I want to focus on some of those people drawing on the things they said at the time and widening the scope to include many of those who lived through the events.

Of all the material I could have drawn on it is the Line Book for 222 Squadron which will start the series.

This was the unofficial record of the squadron kept in the Officier’s Mess and is made up of those little snippets which meant something to the men at the time and were no doubt read over a pint and passed round the room.

"MY ENGINE CUT JUST OVER THE HEDGE" circa December 1940

222 Squadron fought in the battle although the book was begun a month or so after it ended.

But that said many of the men who made contributions to the book or read the jokes, telegrams and pictures will have participated.

They are a mix of ghoulish humour, light knock about fun and just the records of men taking time off from the serious business of fighting.

In time I want to explore their stories, but for now I shall dip at random into the book drawing on the comments left by those men.

"PLEASE SIR ARE WE GOING TO PANKARR AT CALAIS?" circa 1940

I have David Harrop to thank for letting use the Line Book.  He acquired it after it had been thrown away and it now sits amongst his collection of memorabilia from the Battle.

But what makes it just that bit more important is that it stretches from November 1940 through to July 1961, covering the squadron’s operations through the war, the moment it switched to Gloucester Meteors which were the RAF’s first jet fighters to its eventual redeployment to a rocket base and there near the end is a simple entry ‘30th September 1957 “The Air Council – No222 Squadron is to disband.”’

And in between there is a whole history of one RAF unit which offers up a fascinating and seamless story but above all draws me a little closer to those men who we know as the "Few."

Like the  anonymous comment "HEARD AT HORSHAM B-the Group Captain! Don't you understand that fighter pilots have to be off the ground within thirty-five seconds.!"

Pictures; from 222 (Natal) Squadron 'Line' Book, 1940-1961 from the collection of David Harrop

*James Holland offers a fresh perspective on the events of the 1940 Battle of Britain BBC History Magazine July 2 2019

Remembering the Battle of Britain ............ part 4 a film and two music scores

Now there is always a story even behind the most straightforward of events.

Battle of Britain Theme, 1969

So here prompted by a photograph of the record of the Battle of Britain Theme by Ron Goodwin is a tale of two scores.

They were both written for the 1969 film the Battle of Britain.

The first had been composed by Sir William Walton but according to one source was not really liked by the American producers, who instead commissioned Ron Goodwin.*

This in turn led to a spat where Sir Lawrence Oliver threatened to take his name from the credits if Sir William’s composition was not used and eventually a compromise was reached.

A section of the rejected music was used but it was Mr Goodwin’s score that supported the film and will be the one David has on his piece of vinyl.

Sadly I don’t think you will be able to hear the record when David exhibits it as part of his Battle of Britain and Blitz exhibition at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery so in the interests of historical accuracy I have included links to extracts from both which long ago were posted on You Tube.

I doubt that there can be anyone who hasn’t seen the film given that its a staple of the TV schedules and I expect get a showing as we enter the period which was the climax of the battle 75 years ago.
I remember seeing it at the cinema and of course have seen it over the years since on the television.

But like all of these things what sticks in my mind is not just the film or the score but an event that must have happened some months before the film was completed, and I suppose was the closest I have ever come to being a film extra.

We were heading back south across London Bridge in the summer of 1968 in the early hours of the morning.

A.R.P. First Aid Box, 1939

And as you would expect there were few people about save a handful pedestrians standing looking out towards the Tower of London and the docks behind it.

What had caught their interest and drew us in was a powerful red glare topped by a plume of smoke directly to the north of Tower Bridge.

We stopped, gawped for a few minutes and having exchanged the sort of comments you do in these situations with total strangers carried on home to Eltham.

I can’t remember if I even checked in the papers the following day for a report of a dockland fire, and it would be a full year and a bit later that I put together the connection between that red glow and the blitz sequences in the film which in all probability was part of the filming.

I might of course be wrong but it is the highlight of watching the film to spot the red glow and recount once again the tale of the night we crossed London Bridge.

Now I I will refrain from asking David to include the story in the exhibition and instead remind you of the new event which will shortly be installed in the Lodge.

Picture; Battle of Britain Theme, 1969 from the collection of David Harrop

*Battle of Britain (film), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain_(film)#Musical_score

**Battle of Britain March Ron Goodwin  High Quality You Tube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jynq4lEwbew

**Battle of Britain Battle in the Air Sir William Walton, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feJsR1Kgibc

Remembering the Battle of Britain ................ part 3 Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons, August 20 1940

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

It is the line from Mr Churchill’s  Battle of Britain speech  that everyone remembers and of course gave us the  title the “Few”.

It was a memorable speech delivered at a critical moment in the Battle of Britain and until now I have never read the entire thing which is a shame.

More so because there is so much more about Fighter Command and those who flew off over Germany in Bomber Command.

So in the midst of the famous quotation there is  “The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their process and devotion. ............ All our hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must not forget that all the time, every night, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons,  travel far into Germany find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under their heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war making structure of the Nazi power.”*

Now Mr Churchill was not held in high regard in our home.  True there was a respect for him as a war leader but memories of his role in the miners’ strikes earlier in the century and his opposition to the demands for colonial independence led to a more balanced view of this politician.

Added to which mother never forgave him for what she saw as his decision to send her brother to the Far East just as Singapore was to fall to the Japanese.

Uncle Roger never returned dying just a tad past his 21st birthday in a Japanese POW camp.

I have yet to do the research on the decision to send those men East but like mother  cannot forget his opposition to the Labour movement but it would be churlish and unhistorical not to recognise his contribution to winning the that war or his ability to express in a few simple sentences the resolve to prosecute it to victory.

Picture; cover of the speech given by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, on August 20 1940, from the collection of David Harrop

* from the speech given by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, on August 20 1940,

The Battle of Britain remembered ............ next weekend in Saddleworth

Now how we choose to remember and indeed revisit the past takes many forms and I have never been sniffy about re-enactment groups, those themed historical fun days or heritage sites.

They sit beside museums, and scholarly research as a valid way of bringing historical events out of the shadows.

So while I have reservations about the way they sometimes sanitize what were brutal and tragic events they perform a service.

And Yanks Weekend in Saddlworth seems to do that.

This year it will be on the weekend of August 8-9 and is “the North of England’s longest runningWW2 military & living history event.”

Now I could go on about the attractions and events of the day but instead will focus on my friend David Harrop who will be there in Saddleworth School with a selection of his memorabilia from the Battle of Britain.

He has been collecting for years and has a collection which includes many items from both world wars as well as a range of material from the history of the postal service.

Amongst the complete collection are medals, photographs, letters and postcards including many everyday objects from porcelain souvenirs to leaflets about how to prepare for an air raid.

Of special historical interest are the set of correspondence from George Davison to his wife during the Great War, and an autograph book from a Red Cross hospital containing comments poems and pictures by men wounded at Gallipoli and the Somme.

For Uppermill in recognition of the Battle of Britain David will be displaying a copy of the famous “Few speech” made by Winston Churchill along with  the Line Book of 222 squadron which is the unofficial record of the unit made by the men who flew and contains anecdotes, paintings and letters.

And yes I am well aware that the United States did not join the war until 1941 and the Battle of Britain was a full year and a bit before.

Now we try to get along to Saddleworth each year for the event and have always enjoyed the day.

So there you have it, next weekend, in Saddleworth with Yanks Weekend and of course David Harrop.

Pictures; Spitfire fund, leaflet 1940, and Churchill’s speech, 1940 from the collection of David Harrop and poster from Yanks Weekend website

Remembering the Battle of Britain in Southern Cemetery

Now for many today the Battle of Britain is a piece of history, but for those of us who grew up in the 1940s and 50s it was an ever present event celebrated in countless films and still vivid in many people’s memories.

More so for those of us born in southern England who had ready access to the RAF aerodromes, and could pull on the stories of friends and family who saw the vapour trails over the Kent countryside.

But 75 years on and here in the North that all seems a little more remote so I welcome the exhibition of Battle of Britain memorabilia in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

The exhibits are part of the much bigger collection belonging to David Harrop who has had a presence in the Lodge for years displaying material from both world wars.

The exhibition is unique for not only is it the only such collection on show in a cemetery but many of the items relate to men from the two world wars who rest in Southern.

The current display will last until the much bigger exhibition which is planned to commemorate the Manchester Blitz of December 1940.

Picture; items from the Battle of Britain courtesy of David Harrop