大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of John Florida and has been added to the site with his permission.John Florida fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Continuation from No 4065978

Work in Wartime

I was seventeen, yes, because I remember Mr Giles (Giles Signs Newport) saying, they were getting ready to call you up you know. I was called to go to Newport to have a Medical, I was Grade 3. All the others were being drafted to Air Force, Army and so on. When my turn came, they said we don鈥檛 want you at the moment, you are free to go. Of course, you had to go back then, and be allocated employment. I got a job at Dinham, which was being built. I was working for ICI. You see ICI built certain sections, the Acid Section in particular, and ran it for 6 months. All the machinery was installed by ICI Engineers, the Chemists were all ICI men. The Admiralty men came, then at the end of six months the certificate was signed the Admiralty took over, and away they went.

The Admiralty wouldn鈥檛 take it until it was up and running, you know. I mean Cordite was the big thing. It was the Royal Naval Propellant Factory, and the propellant was Cordite. And Cordite consists of nitro cellulose which was produced in one section, cellulose which is really a form of wood pulp. Some of it went down to Trecwn, where it was stored in the big magazines. Because we didn鈥檛 store it at Caerwent, we produced it. It was stored there at Dinham for a matter of weeks, then it was transferred to different assembly points. Because we never made the shells you know, the propellant only. When the gun is loaded, you put your missile in, then you put your Cordite in. Then the Cordite doesn鈥檛 explode, it burns, but it burns terribly terribly fast, and in the confined space of a gun barrel, it sends the projectile as far as you want it to go within reason. Only on the big ships, we could sent them a couple of miles, you know. But on the small ships of course it was just small.

There was also laboratories which we had at Dinham, well staffed laboratories, not down in the Main Office, up into the factory itself. They were testing things all the time. They did other depots for the Admiralty you know. The inspection was done by the Uniform Branch of the Royal Navy, Naval Ordinance. They would do it all, nothing could be exported until it had a certificate that it was satisfactory.

At the Royal Naval Propellant Factory there were Police, The Officer Commanding Works, Chief Mechanical Engineer, he had his section, The Manager of Production, The Manager Technical, the ASO, which was the Armament Supply Officer. During the war particularly, say when a ship was in; and it would be in port say for three or four weeks, while it was being repaired. They would take Officers from there, who would have leave say for two or three weeks. Then they didn鈥檛 know what to do with them, so they would send them to Caerwent in their full dress uniform, to give us a little talk. Sort of say 鈥渨e know your back here鈥�, you know 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e out in the sea but don鈥檛 forget we need you鈥�. It was always drummed into us. Because I was always moaning, you know, I used to volunteer for overseas because we had overseas sections, and we were always told. 鈥淲e need you, the Admiralty cannot command their ships without Cordite and you鈥檝e got to produce it. There were always Uniformed Officers coming, the Cordite and everything we produced was inspected by the Uniform Branch, not by us, by the Inspector of Naval Ordinance.

The people in the Cordite Section were very well looked after with Welfare Officers coming around to check their conditions. They wore white loose fitting uniforms, and every machine item was fitted to avoid fire or an explosion. In some of the other sections rubber buckets, hammers etc would be used to avoid friction, which could lead to a fire. Rubber shoes were worn, all supplied by the Admiralty. I think an interesting point was the Rolling Mill for the Cordite. Cordite almost looks like a kind of pastry and it鈥檚 rolled, but it burns very quickly, and we had a very secure system. Naturally we had to be very very very careful, otherwise there would be a terrible explosion. In the Cordite section the girls who were doing the rolling, when this was coming through, would come running to the Foreman, and say 鈥渟omething鈥檚 gone wrong, something鈥檚 gone wrong鈥� and these thin lights (sprinklers) were so sensitive, that even the rising sun if it was anywhere near it, could set it off. And the poor girl didn鈥檛 realise why she鈥檇 got a soaking, and the Cordite and the machinery stopped and everything.

There were lot of Chemists of course who had special accommodation, and there was lots of other technical people, Engineers, Chemists, you name we had them. There were mostly single quarters, but the key personnel of course had houses. Dr. Knight, who was in charge, had a house at Pwllmeyric. There was a very nice house up towards The Cwm, but his Wife didn鈥檛 want to stay there, she wasn鈥檛 very happy with that, so she came to Pwllmeyric to Mulberry House.

There were all manner of things I remember. I mean don鈥檛 forget the security side, we had posters all over the place, 鈥淭he walls have ears鈥�, and we were impressed on us not to say to anything, and not to say what we were doing or big consignment went out, you didn鈥檛 tell anyone you know.

What was very popular with the workers was the canteens. We had a central kitchen, and all the food was taken from the central kitchen to the various sections, the acid section, cordite section, nitro glycerine section, and so on. The workers were assured of a good meal, and I think it was with the rationing, that was very attractive for the whole lot of them.

But you imagine, you volunteered as a lady to be a Fire Watcher. Suddenly, you鈥檝e got an invitation to a party. Well what am I going to do on that night, well perhaps John Florida, there was another chap Jeffries, he was waiting to go in the forces, and the two of us were well known to do other peoples Firewatching. We didn鈥檛 mind, because we got a free supper and a free breakfast.

We had a very successful social life at Dinham. Because you know it was difficult to get people to come to work at Dinham, particularly highly skilled technical people. So we had a very a nice Dramatic Society, I acted as Publicity Officer. What you did you see, you called people together, again on a voluntary basis at The Welfare Centre. You had a play reading, and you would try and get people to take parts. The Producer naturally would try and get the best people to take part. It was usually produced and ran in the Welfare Centre, which was really nice. It was quite popular with the technicians, I mean, especially the single men, who stayed in the Hostel. They had nothing to do in their spare time apart from the cinema in Chepstow and Newport . We had films show twice a week I think.

You see the boys liked 鈥楽unny Side Up鈥�. But I had to get these concerts because Mrs Knight liked them, we had nearly all Ibsen鈥檚 plays, The Cherry Orchard, you know the sort of thing. She loved it and the Officers loved it. We used to have hold up the second half of the performance because Dr Knight would lead all his party into a room at the back of the Welfare Centre to have coffee. It was my awful job to act as liaison. I used to whisper 鈥渁re you ready Sir鈥� 鈥渁nother three minutes鈥� I鈥檇 pop back and say 鈥渁nother three minutes鈥�. Of course they would hold back the start of the second half until the party came back.

Don鈥檛 forget that the world has changed terribly. You were expected when you went into your Senior Officers Room, you would make sure you had your tie put right, and your jacket on, there was no shilly shallying. They were Sir, and they and their car, they had everything that they wanted. They directed us, and you expected it, and you were better for it, make no mistake about it.

Anyway, Dr Knight, was a marvellous man in my opinion, and he did a lot of, (work) you know, he gave us a lot of support. I was in the table tennis team, we did a lot of work, and down the Welfare Centre we used to have the finals of the Table Tennis.

But I think what come through the war years was the people, the ladies particularly who worked in the Main Office who were married. And most men folk were either overseas or in the forces, and of course the inevitable telephone call would come when the husbands managed to get leave. And naturally the ladies got very excited and would want to take time off. Which wasn鈥檛 all that easy for the Offices, because if someone went off you had to get um other people to take on the work. But obviously they were given time off, a few days. And their husbands came home, and went back again, and the Ladies came back to the Office and resumed their work.

National Savings was considered very important in those days during the war, because I think money was needed in those days for War Bonds.
Not only did they want everything in the way of food, so you dug for victory, but you also saved for victory. They had a paid Officer who came round and of course targeted places like Caerwent at Dinham. Because naturally some of the employees were earning very good money. We had constant visits from the Savings Officer and naturally a certain amount of literature was promulgated throughout the Factory. And different sections vied with one another, as who could raise the most money. And the more money that this Officer could raise, the better it was. They had proper arrangements, I mean you would say I鈥檒l give ten shillings a week, which was quite good. Right sign this form, go to wages, it will be taken out of your wage, look.

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