The Short 184 (8359) at the FAA Museum is Westland built.

http://www.fleetairarm.com/en-GB/exhibit/Short_184_8359/1_29_2.aspx

Also was there two different shcemes one for ocean and one coastal?

Not in Coastal Command. The interesting bit is the use of glossy white under the wings and tail and matt on the fuselage sides:

But you may be thinking of the Navy wich used different schemes for ship and land based aircraft:

the demise of the RDA’s, another Prescott white elephant, could not have come soon enough.

I’m not entering a political debate or saying whether particular cut backs are necessary, merely highlighting that there are other quangos going than the ones in that list. RDA funding has supported many local museums, not least RAFM Cosford.

It is good news that the National Museums are to be retained – but they will find funding sources much harder than previously.

Some detail on the Henshaw/Spitfire incidents here: http://spitfireforums.com/index.php?topic=198.0;prev_next=prev#new

– at the foot of the thread.

Interesting. I haven’t found any more on that but did find an apparent spying incident at Crewe, an employee imprisoned for having a cine film of aircraft engines. Also in Hansard.

It highlights the two possible offences – these incidents were prosecuted under the Defence Regulations. There was also the Treachery Act for more serious incidents.

Well said AM (apart from the drone pun :rolleyes:)

The wartime peak figure of 3,714,000 days lost to strikes in 1944 seems dramatic out of context but I found the earlier figures in a written answer in the Commons.
1921: 85.8m; 1922: 19.8m; Fluctuating to 8.2m in 1929 See Hansard here

The 1930s figures are noticably lower with 1937 having 3.3m lost days. The full list is in Hansard here

And to compare with the late 1940s (although I’m not sure when the regulations banning strikes were fully lifted): (also from hansard) The figures for 1945, 1946 and 1947 were 2,840,000, 2,160,000 and 2,430,000 respectively.

It has to be said that, despite the Defence Regulations, strikes seem to been as common during the war as the years around it. Which does surprise me.

But there were those in parliament who were not concerned. W J Brown (Rugby) stated in Feb 1945:

The hon. Member for Northampton is troubled about strikes in war-time, but he must do the Labour movement some justice there. The actual number of days lost in unofficial strikes during this war is about one-seventh of the number of days lost in the last war, and in view of some of the labour conditions which are endured in Britain to-day—on which I found the Minister of Labour singularly unrepentant at Question Time—what I am surprised at is not the number of days that have been lost in strikes during this war, but the smallness of that number.”

AID and sabotage – thanks John. An important point with a lot of unskilled workers being brought into the industry.

AllanK

This thread is making me really grumpy. Not sure why I’m back but anyway . . .
– ABC news: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/28/3024329.htm quoting military analyst Peter Singer “the US has over 7,000 remote-controlled robots in the air and over 12,000 on the ground.”
– P W Singer appears to be a controversial philosopher with a book to promote: http://www.ted.com/speakers/p_w_singer.html Or, be nice to him, perhaps ABC misquoted the figures.
– Afterall wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan) has a very detailed list of the 175 drone strikes in Pakistan. Which makes me question Singer’s numbers. Either way, a quick check of facts, and some care to think about their accuracy helps the debate along.

In a probably vain attempt to put this debate back on track:

What did surprise me is the statements in this thread about the amount of industrial disputation, I had never considered that it had happened.

We’ve just got the wartime figures so far. Is it high or low? I don’t know. We’d need the figures for years before and after the war to understand. It certainly appears that there were only limited cases where people were charged under the laws which banned strikes action. Again, I think there is a danger of judging the past based on the present day when strike action is not common place.

Baz – I hope your interesting visitor returns. I’d put money on his father being with the AID, but it would be interesting to know more about his job, assuming his son has the details. Such a shame that so many of these old boys are not around now to ask.

Numbers or proportions? In France, UK, USA Aus? They are all in this list thanks to the ever helpful wikipedia. But I’m not entering that discussion 😉

Other numbers: In the UK there were 16,760,000 men and women in industry in 1944, 4,500,000 men in fighting services and 467,000 women in the auxiliary services (Brit War Production 39-45).

Compare that to the strike figure of 3.7m days (presumably man days) lost, and it shows why the government was not that worried. And you have to consider that while strikes were more normal in those days, workers did not have the protection of employment law that we enjoy today.

And to go right back to the start:

Also, what about sabotage, was it widespread and what might have triggered it?

This photo is thought to show sabotage in an aircraft factory. But my source, who was a 15 year-old apprentice at the time, knows no more about it. He suspects, if it happened, that it was kept very quiet.