大象传媒

It was not the busiest week of my life during World War Two nor was it the most dangerous - but it was my most unusual working week.

I was working in a local factory as a setter/operator gear cutter and it was 1944.

It was the practice of the company to close the factory down for the holiday week, usually the last week in July and this even happened in wartime as there was always a certain amount of maintenance work to be carried out that could not be done when the workshop was fully operational.

The machine shop comprised the following types of machine - drilling, milling, gearcutting (hobbing), lathes, automatics, presses.engraving, grinding, tapping and various types of special machines also various types of benchwork possibly over 100 machines in all.

Some days before the works were due to close I was asked by the foreman if I would be prepared to work during the closedown as I would be on my own apart from the maintenance men and a skeleton canteen staff so it was unlikely that I should have any company.

The reason was that it was necessary to build up a supply of part number ZX695 ( This is not the true part number but I have forgotten the actual part number) and this part was a long spindle with a thread running along three quarters of the length and it was named a micro screw thread.

It was not difficult to cut the thread but because of the length of the thread - about 3" it was very difficult to maintain the limits of plus or minus half a thousandth of an inch ( plus or minus 0.0005"). The thread had a very smooth and polished appearance.

After the din of a workshop with all of the machines running it was incredibly quiet as I worked on my own with just the smooth hum of a single motor to drive the screw cutting machine and a overhead shaft running a few other machines.

There were maintenance men about although I did not see many of them except when a very large machine was being moved into the machine shop and about 8 men were using rollers under the machine to move it into position but for the most part the only people that I saw were in the canteen for my lunch. There were a couple of ladies producing basic dishes for lunch.

The lunch break was 45 minutes from 12.45 to 13.30 and I adhered strictly to these times even though I was unsupervised.

The workshop changed during the war years for as new machinery was purchased other machines were either moved out or changed in position so that early on in the war the factory was preparing to increase production.
Raw materials coming in being processed and moving down the line to the final assembly hall and inspection. So it was very necessary to have one week each year to make these changes.

Of course, at this time we no longer stayed in the shelters when the siren sounded for the alarm that enemy aircraft were in the area was sounded by spotters on the roof.
The sound of the klaxon in an urgent manner every few seconds was alwasys a bit of a shock to the system but in the near quiet of my solitude I nearly jumped off the floor when I got my first alert of the week. I walked to the shelter and sat in silence till I got the signal to return.

To cut the micro screwthread took about seventeen minutes but to have switched the motor off during the process would have made the part a reject so although all power was supposed to be switched off during and alert I had already made up my mind that I would leave the micro screw thread machine running to produce a perfect part.
It was a very silent running motor and I guessed that nobody would hear it running.

Imagine my surprise when returning from a trip to the shelter I found the works manager walking towards me, this is trouble I thought, and decided to say that I had inadvertently left the motor running.
Fortunately I was not asked about the matter and after asking me a few questions about the work the manager walked off and I was able to relax.

So eventually my silent week was ended and a good supply of ZX695's produced along with other work and I could prepare for a holiday in Manchester where my mother, two young sisters and a young brother had been evacuted after the V1's started arriving in June 1944.

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