Wartime Production exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum in 2013

Dear All,

Coventry Transport Museum is working on an exhibition about Wartime Production in the United Kingdom during World War Two. The exhibition is planned for 2013 and we are currently in the process of gathering information on this fascinating subject.

As this is such a huge topic, we have yet to decide what precisely we are including in the display. At present we are gathering as much information as we can (relevant books, sources of archive material, etc.). It will be mostly a photographic display, but we hope to include some vehicles and other relevant material as well.

I am currently trying to create a complete list of all aircraft and aero engine manufacturing sites. I think this is fairly complete, but it would be good to find out more. Obviously many of the production facilities were operated under the ‘shadow factory’ scheme which will be a big part of this exhibition.

As we are a road transport museum, we probably have to focus on the link between the motor industry and wartime production throughout the UK. For example the involvement of the Rootes Group , Standard, Daimler, etc.

We are researching: military vehicle production, tank production, armaments production, aero engine production and aircraft production.

The exhibition will be about the people, the factories and the products. Therefore we are looking for: good quality images of the production facilities, images of people working in those factories, images of the products they are building, statistics of the different manufacturers and any related information.

Many parts and components were obviously sub-assembled at smaller facilities as part of the dispersal of work, we are interested in hearing about them as well, but we realize we have to focus on the main assembly plants.

I have noticed that this forum discussed wartime production several times so I hope you can help us.

Many thanks,

Chris

[email]shadowfactory@transport-museum.co.uk[/email]