大象传媒

During World War 2 my father, Herbert Edmund Etherington, was a teacher of Engineering at Gravesend Technical School for Boys in North Kent.

I was three at the outbreak of war so my coherent memories commence from about the second year of the conflict.

During the evenings Dad's workshops assisted the war effort by undertaking various light engineering production jobs. Many of the aircraft components were made for Essex Aero, a firm which had started life in 1936 at Gravesend aerodrome (Footnote 1).

Some of the machining involved aluminium or aluminium alloy ('Dural') and generated a lot of scrap plate metal.

Dad was an amateur artist and throughout his life experimented with new techniques. Prior to the war he had taught himself the skills of copper plate engraving (Footnote 2) and it must have been this that suggested to him that 'Dural' plate might be another medium which could be engraved.

I still have one or two of his plates, and a print from one which is of some historical significance is reproduced here. It shows a flotilla of freighters in the Thames below Tilbury, flying anti-aircraft balloons as a defence against dive-bombing attack. I was too young to recollect the details, but believe the original sketch from which the engraving was made must have been done in about 1940-41 (Footnote 3).

The building at bottom left is, I think, the "World's End" public house, close to Tilbury Fort. I have a number of Dad's watercolour paintings which were originally sketched from the sea-wall there - also visible in the engraving. When I was about 8 just after the war, we often cycled to the "World's End" from home at Higham (in north Kent), crossing the river by the passenger ferry from Gravesend to Tilbury.

The German Junkers 87 'Stuka' dive-bomber was used to attack shipping because of its pin-point accuracy in bombing, and the balloon defence quickly came into use, the intention being to foul the J 87s propeller or wings with the cable. Some of the J 87s were subsequently fitted with a cable-cutting assembly on the front of the aircraft as a counter measure which I believe was successful.

I have rarely come across any description of these balloon-flying ships and have not seen any photographs, though I'm sure such must exist. For this reason I suspect that Dad's engraving is of some historical value.

Dr John R. Etherington
Llanhowell
Pembrokeshire

Footnotes

1. Essex Aero moved away from Gravesend aerodrome during the war years, but returned in the mid '40s where, amongst other things, it manufactured beer bottle crates from magnesium. The company went out of business in 1957.

2. Engravings are made by gouging grooves into the surface of a metal plate (or hardwood end-grain). Printing ink is smeared onto the surface and then wiped-off, leaving ink in the grooves. The plate is then pressed mechanically onto damp paper transferring the inked lines, and also slightly impressing the paper.

3. The date can't be earlier, as I recollect the prints being made using the rollers of Mum's laundry mangle as a press. At the time I asked Dad if he would make a plate for me. I still have it and some prints - a copy of a fish from the cover of a 1930s cigarette card album belonging to my older brother. I also now own the album, over 60 years on! It is likely, but I have no evidence, that the original sketch was made by my father, from the roof of the old Technical School building in Darnley Road, Gravesend.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.