Charles, a mirror image of your dad’s experience was that of my dad’s oldest friend. He was a fitter on the Rootes line in Liverpool, assembling Blenheims and getting more and more fed up.
He was accepted to the Army and, it being war time, the Army had no problems in offering a working class Liverpool lad a commission. He never looked back, eventually becoming transport officer on Brian Horrocks’ personal staff and commandeering a number of top Nazis’ personal cars. To the end of his life he never bought anything other than Mercedes.