My mum was quite young but did aircraft work during the war. She talked about how she would be bussed off in the mornings to help build Beaufighters which were a secret project aircraft at the begining of the war. Lost her in 2009 sadly. Lots of respect for those on the home front who still got bombed at night.
Thanks to all you guys n girls,what a top dock,mum assembled Lancaster’s in Manchester,dad fought as a highland light piper,we need more of this history please,thanks for the research n the program,first class.
Wonderful that this story is now told. There are so many extraordinary 'untold' stories from WWll which little by little are uncovered and with dedication, patience and persistence, they can be brought to life for us all. Congratulations on completing this film. I have yet to see it but will certainly buy it when it is available.
Much like Bletchley and their computer. They were told it was secret and nobody ever said they could tell anyone. So they didn't! The world's first real computer was British. We were 10 years ahead of America when Labour decided to scrap the UK space program. How much further would we have been if we had been able to use a proper computer?
Watched this at a small cinema in Fordingbridge. Quite poignant, especially as some of the interviewees have since passed on (one of which reminded me of my own mum). We owe that generation massive respect.
My Dad worked as an Aircraft Fitter at the Woolston, Southampton factory until it was Blitzkreiged. He was buried alive for three days under the rubble but that didn't stop him. He would sometimes complain he had metal in his head, but we didn't really believe him and thought it was an excuse for his sometimes erratic behaviour. Yet, after his death the autopsy proved him right. All those dear people from 75-80 years ago did so much to maintain the United Kingdom. I look at it now and think that they would've never believed the mess this world's in now. It' enough to make you weep.
@@bbcisrubbish What rubbish. Labour member here and I showed visitors around all the spitfire sites in Salisbury yesterday. We're as proud of Secret Spitfire history as anybody else.
The Brits were completing 400 spitfires a month, the Germans estimated they were completing 200 a month. When the Germans thought the Brits was down to 50 spitfires, they attacked in large bomber formations only to be met with over 600 spitfires..
Vickers-Armstrongs, Supermarine's parent company had to take over running the Spitfire shadow factory at Castle Bromwich in 1940. This had to be done as the Spitfire was a very complex and new form of construction and it was hard to get it into full production at first. The workforce in Salisbury may have been from various backgrounds, but to build the Spitfire, they must have been trained or it would have been a disaster. However' all across the UK at this time new work forces were recruited from all sorts of backgrounds who were trained and became highly skilled. Likewise, in Canada, the USA and Australia this was done. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bromwich_Assembly#Vickers-Armstrong:_1940%E2%80%931945
This is bizzare, earlier this evening (15/ 10/2019 ) I saw part of this story on my local Uk BBC TV News. It's the first time I'd heard of it, ( but I'm not a bit surprised) and hours later, here I am, reading about it again on You Tube, dated 14/11/2017 ) ? Question is---why are they mentioning it today, as if it's never been revealed before?? I agree, it is a unusual story, BUT, this is precisely what both Germany and Britain did during the war, for obvious reasons. Spread the risk far and wide. What was called ''Shadow Factory's'', were built all over Britain, disguised as Barns and wharehouses way out in rural areas. As a 2-4 year old during the war, I lived about 8--10 miles from the Spitfire factory at 'CASTLE BROMWICH' near Birmingham. As I recall, fast and noisey small planes, often roared over our house, as i sat in my pushchair, in the garden. I'm guessing that these planes were being flown by the Ladies of the ATA, to RAF frontline bases in southern England.
I know garages were used to make spitfires as rather large top drawer garage in Reading made then Julian's of Reading was famouse for it's coach work and could build a horse box if you purchased a lorry chasses from them ,so hence spitfire production ,I believe they were tested at woodly air fields on out scurts of Reading .
kevcal: Yes I found that out when I tried to order, I am on the list for when it is released, apparently they must wait until it has stopped being show at public displays/cinemas, living in France there is no chance of seeing it at a cinema, so I will have to wait.
The city of Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe) was founded in 1890 and named Fort Salisbury after the UK Prime Minister of the time Lord Salisbury. The city of Salisbury, England was chartered in 1227, although the name Salisbury was recorded as early as the year 900.
Secret Spitfire operations? Oh. it's an account of the fairly well known local arrangements for dispersal of Spitfire production after the Woolston factory was bombed in September of 1940. Interesting if a previously untapped source of information has been utilised.
For anyone interested enough they would already know of the dispersal of manufacturing. However, I think this film is aimed at the 'modern' generation who are probably ignorant about much of the past, having been through an education system geared to trashing all that made the country once great.
Rod Parsons It specifically relates to Salisbury, hence it being in the title and if you read the comments and listened to the video, you would realise many living there were not aware of this part of their history, hence the secret part of the title.
@@frankanderson5012 Given the number of locals who worked there, it can not honestly be described as a secret. Nor does the fact that some of the populace were unaware does not make it secret although it may well have been on someone's restricted list. Such arrangements were commonplace.
This is no different to sten gun production at times and even german gun production at times. DISPERSED manufacturing. Components made in garages to them come together in a larger place to be assembled. The illegal handgun industry in india works the same way.
Unless you knew the 'secret', one would be somewhat confused as to what the secret actually was. As a "Baby Boomer" I am well aware that the manufacture of many war goods was farmed out to small factories. So, what was the secret?
The Luftwaffe did attempt to destroy the aircraft factories. By having these mini assembly shops the industry was dispersed and harder to knock out. When this process started it was unheard of. You are right, by the end of the war it was commonplace. That said, building a fighter needed more precision than building a truck, so the accomplishment using a scratch workforce is pretty amazing. The numbers are saying 10% of all Spitfires were constructed outside of the main factories.
yes we all knew about the women on the home front and what a great and valiant contribution they played to the war effort , anyone who was schooled pre 80s would and anyone who loved the spitfire as a historical piece of beauty would have obtained enough evidence of this .. so the `secret ` is only a secret to those who don't know, or have little interest in our history
@@davewright8206 Agreed. I am 75 and grew up loving all WW2 aircraft, especially the Spitfire. I haven't seen the film, but I reckon it might (I stress MIGHT) be interesting to those born from the 60's upwards.
@@davewright8206 Maybe the word secret is too strong, but during the war, or at least 1940-41 the dispersal of production would not have been publicised because it would have shown that the strategic bombing of factories might work. (The Germans made only a half-hearted attempt to target industry) Britain needed world outrage and support from the US at this time. Disclosing that armaments were being built in residential areas would soften the outrage and justify the bombing of civilian targets. How the war was seen by the world in 1940 was very different from how it was seen in 1945. Today we often think that attitudes that existed in 1945 had been there from day one. This is not the case. It took a while for these to develop.
We were building bombs in the little town of Traversecity. Every city, every town in every country worked towards the war effort. Building planes in rural places is NOT NEW. Wilbur and Orville Wright did it in their bicycle shop. Without them, the world would not be the same.
I believe It took bendix in U S A to add fuel injection units to their Packard Merlins built under license. Miss Shillings orafic corrected the merlins tendency to shudder when the carbs float bowls flooded.
The English Merlin's were fitted with throttle body injection from 1942 onwards. Throttle body injection and carburettors work better on supercharged engines than cylinder injection because the evaporating fuel cools the intake air and increases the mass of air the supercharger compressor can push into each cylinder and hence output power.
@@ericcampbell2826 Rolls Royce knew about fuel injection but did not use it because the carburetor worked better with a supercharger at the time, Rolls Royce and SU developed improved carburetors which were given to Bendix and eventually an injection pump.
Untrained you say? My mother built B 17's at Douglas in Long Beach Ca. Depending on what they were going to do they got a day's training. If they passed, that was what they were going to do until they asked for other work; then they were trained for that. They didn't need to know every aspect of the construction to do their part to win the War.
Yep, probably poor choice of words, but I'll forgive that from a modern day perspective. They would've started out unskilled but would've had basic training in whatever aspect they were engaged in.
The Spitfire was a very complicated plane to manufacture. Hurricane was better. No wonder so many pilots were killed by Spitfires having problems and accidents, being built in backyards.
The Hurricane was built using WW1 tooling and if you look at a Hurricane, from the cockpit backwards it is that of a biplane, not much chance of that plane being modified too much. The Spitfire was built, not put together haphazardly, engineers were on hand to oversee the work. It was developed and modernised throughout the war, gaining size and doubling its power. They say 'inexperienced workforce', it was like a big puzzle, as long as you followed the build pattern things would work out, pilots lives depended on these being assembled properly, they were tested before as modern items like cars are, so any problems were rectified before release to the squadrons.
The pilots were not killed BY Spitfires they were killed IN Spitfires. In WWII and especially Battle of Britain the Hurricanes took on the slower bombers and the Spits took on the covering fighters. Its why Hurricanes shot down more aircraft than Spits but they were involved in different tasking.
"No wonder so many pilots were killed by Spitfires having problems and accidents, being built in backyards." Dumb, un-informed comment. You really don't have the faintest idea of what you are talking about, do you?
@@ALA-uv7jq Answer straight from the UA-cam For Dummies manual. If you had *any* facts to back your stupid claim about the Spitfire you would be obliged to put them up, wouldn't you, dummy? Doing that would give your stupid claim some credibility, wouldn't it, dummy? Are you there, dummy? Got anything intelligent to say?
My mum was quite young but did aircraft work during the war. She talked about how she would be bussed off in the mornings to help build Beaufighters which were a secret project aircraft at the begining of the war. Lost her in 2009 sadly. Lots of respect for those on the home front who still got bombed at night.
Thanks to all you guys n girls,what a top dock,mum assembled Lancaster’s in Manchester,dad fought as a highland light piper,we need more of this history please,thanks for the research n the program,first class.
Thank you to my great great uncle Norman telling this story and helping during this time!
Wonderful that this story is now told. There are so many extraordinary 'untold' stories from WWll which little by little are uncovered and with dedication, patience and persistence, they can be brought to life for us all. Congratulations on completing this film. I have yet to see it but will certainly buy it when it is available.
Great guitar collection!
I grew up in Salisbury through the 50's and 60's before moving away in the 70's, this is the first I have ever heard of Spitfires being built there.
Much like Bletchley and their computer. They were told it was secret and nobody ever said they could tell anyone. So they didn't!
The world's first real computer was British. We were 10 years ahead of America when Labour decided to scrap the UK space program.
How much further would we have been if we had been able to use a proper computer?
Watched this at a small cinema in Fordingbridge. Quite poignant, especially as some of the interviewees have since passed on (one of which reminded me of my own mum). We owe that generation massive respect.
God bless all these women that made the difference during WWII!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Maurice Clemens Totally agree. There is nothing finer when men and women work together.
So true, my sister was a paint sprayer, painting drop tanks in England. She still lives in Perth.
My Dad worked as an Aircraft Fitter at the Woolston, Southampton factory until it was Blitzkreiged. He was buried alive for three days under the rubble but that didn't stop him. He would sometimes complain he had metal in his head, but we didn't really believe him and thought it was an excuse for his sometimes erratic behaviour. Yet, after his death the autopsy proved him right. All those dear people from 75-80 years ago did so much to maintain the United Kingdom. I look at it now and think that they would've never believed the mess this world's in now. It' enough to make you weep.
My grandma who just turned 103 years old, was one of the "rosie the riveters" in WW2.
Thomas Coy Long live your grandfather - and tell him thanks for his contribution to help win the war.
@@kingofthegarden2350 He said his "grandMA" and that's amazing! Bless her heart!
Steamer John Ops! my eyes aren't what they were - thanks.
Cool , she must be 104 by this year !
@@kingofthegarden2350 lol
Why would anyone give this a thumbs down !
Probably a German or a UK Labour voter.
@@bbcisrubbish More likely Muslim immigrants.
@@bbcisrubbish What rubbish. Labour member here and I showed visitors around all the spitfire sites in Salisbury yesterday. We're as proud of Secret Spitfire history as anybody else.
Another hidden story in the epic that was WWII. I had no clue those secret factories existed, and I want to know more.
Go and see this fantastic film you will love it !!
The Brits were completing 400 spitfires a month, the Germans estimated they were completing 200 a month. When the Germans thought the Brits was down to 50 spitfires, they attacked in large bomber formations only to be met with over 600 spitfires..
Secret Spitfires seen several years ago in Odeon Salisbury.
Vickers-Armstrongs, Supermarine's parent company had to take over running the Spitfire shadow factory at Castle Bromwich in 1940. This had to be done as the Spitfire was a very complex and new form of construction and it was hard to get it into full production at first. The workforce in Salisbury may have been from various backgrounds, but to build the Spitfire, they must have been trained or it would have been a disaster. However' all across the UK at this time new work forces were recruited from all sorts of backgrounds who were trained and became highly skilled. Likewise, in Canada, the USA and Australia this was done. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bromwich_Assembly#Vickers-Armstrong:_1940%E2%80%931945
This is bizzare, earlier this evening (15/ 10/2019 ) I saw part of this story on my local Uk BBC TV News. It's the first time I'd heard of it, ( but I'm not a bit surprised) and hours later, here I am, reading about it again on You Tube, dated 14/11/2017 ) ? Question is---why are they mentioning it today, as if it's never been revealed before?? I agree, it is a unusual story, BUT, this is precisely what both Germany and Britain did during the war, for obvious reasons. Spread the risk far and wide. What was called ''Shadow Factory's'', were built all over Britain, disguised as Barns and wharehouses way out in rural areas. As a 2-4 year old during the war, I lived about 8--10 miles from the Spitfire factory at 'CASTLE BROMWICH' near Birmingham. As I recall, fast and noisey small planes, often roared over our house, as i sat in my pushchair, in the garden. I'm guessing that these planes were being flown by the Ladies of the ATA, to RAF frontline bases in southern England.
Did not know about this documentary, so a bit of a secret in its own right. Did I get released on DVD?
Yup, see earlier posts. Just ordered mine, looking forward to seeing it.
I know garages were used to make spitfires as rather large top drawer garage in Reading made then Julian's of Reading was famouse for it's coach work and could build a horse box if you purchased a lorry chasses from them ,so hence spitfire production ,I believe they were tested at woodly
air fields on out scurts of Reading .
An excellent idea, where can we buy this video please ?
Not yet available - see here - www.secretspitfires.com/shop/
kevcal: Yes I found that out when I tried to order, I am on the list for when it is released, apparently they must wait until it has stopped being show at public displays/cinemas, living in France there is no chance of seeing it at a cinema, so I will have to wait.
It’s available now on DVD 😀
www.secretspitfires.com/shop/
@3:05 maybe it is the hair style but she reminds me of Margaret Thatcher.
This is desperately cool. I wish the WWII secrets would leak out a little faster, before all the 1st hand witnesses have left us.
Wow, I thought Salisbury was a Rhodesian city, and here I pride myself on being "okay" on geography......must be in England
The city of Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe) was founded in 1890 and named Fort Salisbury after the UK Prime Minister of the time Lord Salisbury. The city of Salisbury, England was chartered in 1227, although the name Salisbury was recorded as early as the year 900.
fantastic work by volunteers ... much better than the alternative practised by the Nazis..
Yep you had me until Women's power. How about people patriotism . reguardless of their sex.
That's a modern perspective. T'was a different world in the 1940's when women were rarely given anything like 'equality'.
Secret Spitfire operations? Oh. it's an account of the fairly well known local arrangements for dispersal of Spitfire production after the Woolston factory was bombed in September of 1940. Interesting if a previously untapped source of information has been utilised.
Totally agree.
'Secret' as meant not to be known to the German planners.
For anyone interested enough they would already know of the dispersal of manufacturing. However, I think this film is aimed at the 'modern' generation who are probably ignorant about much of the past, having been through an education system geared to trashing all that made the country once great.
Rod Parsons It specifically relates to Salisbury, hence it being in the title and if you read the comments and listened to the video, you would realise many living there were not aware of this part of their history, hence the secret part of the title.
@@frankanderson5012 Given the number of locals who worked there, it can not honestly be described as a secret. Nor does the fact that some of the populace were unaware does not make it secret although it may well have been on someone's restricted list.
Such arrangements were commonplace.
This is no different to sten gun production at times and even german gun production at times. DISPERSED manufacturing. Components made in garages to them come together in a larger place to be assembled. The illegal handgun industry in india works the same way.
The hand gun industry in the Philippines and Pakistan works similarly but slightly more openly.
Unless you knew the 'secret', one would be somewhat confused as to what the secret actually was. As a "Baby Boomer" I am well aware that the manufacture of many war goods was farmed out to small factories. So, what was the secret?
The Luftwaffe did attempt to destroy the aircraft factories. By having these mini assembly shops the industry was dispersed and harder to knock out. When this process started it was unheard of. You are right, by the end of the war it was commonplace. That said, building a fighter needed more precision than building a truck, so the accomplishment using a scratch workforce is pretty amazing. The numbers are saying 10% of all Spitfires were constructed outside of the main factories.
yes we all knew about the women on the home front and what a great and valiant contribution they played to the war effort , anyone who was schooled pre 80s would and anyone who loved the spitfire as a historical piece of beauty would have obtained enough evidence of this .. so the `secret ` is only a secret to those who don't know, or have little interest in our history
@@davewright8206 Agreed. I am 75 and grew up loving all WW2 aircraft, especially the Spitfire. I haven't seen the film, but I reckon it might (I stress MIGHT) be interesting to those born from the 60's upwards.
@@davewright8206
Maybe the word secret is too strong, but during the war, or at least 1940-41 the dispersal of production would not have been publicised because it would have shown that the strategic bombing of factories might work. (The Germans made only a half-hearted attempt to target industry) Britain needed world outrage and support from the US at this time. Disclosing that armaments were being built in residential areas would soften the outrage and justify the bombing of civilian targets. How the war was seen by the world in 1940 was very different from how it was seen in 1945. Today we often think that attitudes that existed in 1945 had been there from day one. This is not the case. It took a while for these to develop.
We were building bombs in the little town of Traversecity. Every city, every town in every country worked towards the war effort. Building planes in rural places is NOT NEW. Wilbur and Orville Wright did it in their bicycle shop. Without them, the world would not be the same.
Höpö höp Woman Win
If the me 109 was fitted with fuel injection in stead of a carb WHY wast our fighters ?
I believe It took bendix in U S A to add fuel injection units to their Packard Merlins built under license.
Miss Shillings orafic corrected the merlins tendency to shudder when the carbs float bowls flooded.
The English Merlin's were fitted with throttle body injection from 1942 onwards. Throttle body injection and carburettors work better on supercharged engines than cylinder injection because the evaporating fuel cools the intake air and increases the mass of air the supercharger compressor can push into each cylinder and hence output power.
@@ericcampbell2826
Rolls Royce knew about fuel injection but did not use it because the carburetor worked better with a supercharger at the time, Rolls Royce and SU developed improved carburetors which were given to Bendix and eventually an injection pump.
"Untrained" ???
Untrained you say? My mother built B 17's at Douglas in Long Beach Ca. Depending on what they were going to do they got a day's training. If they passed, that was what they were going to do until they asked for other work; then they were trained for that. They didn't need to know every aspect of the construction to do their part to win the War.
Yep, probably poor choice of words, but I'll forgive that from a modern day perspective. They would've started out unskilled but would've had basic training in whatever aspect they were engaged in.
Trying to shoe-horn a size 10 "woman spin" into a size 6 story. It was a "handful" of men because they were away leading nasty lives.
The Spitfire was a very complicated plane to manufacture. Hurricane was better. No wonder so many pilots were killed by Spitfires having problems and accidents, being built in backyards.
The Hurricane was built using WW1 tooling and if you look at a Hurricane, from the cockpit backwards it is that of a biplane, not much chance of that plane being modified too much. The Spitfire was built, not put together haphazardly, engineers were on hand to oversee the work. It was developed and modernised throughout the war, gaining size and doubling its power.
They say 'inexperienced workforce', it was like a big puzzle, as long as you followed the build pattern things would work out, pilots lives depended on these being assembled properly, they were tested before as modern items like cars are, so any problems were rectified before release to the squadrons.
The pilots were not killed BY Spitfires they were killed IN Spitfires. In WWII and especially Battle of Britain the Hurricanes took on the slower bombers and the Spits took on the covering fighters. Its why Hurricanes shot down more aircraft than Spits but they were involved in different tasking.
"No wonder so many pilots were killed by Spitfires having problems and accidents, being built in backyards."
Dumb, un-informed comment. You really don't have the faintest idea of what you are talking about, do you?
@@MarsFKA Do some research idiot, instead of reading children's story books.
@@ALA-uv7jq Answer straight from the UA-cam For Dummies manual.
If you had *any* facts to back your stupid claim about the Spitfire you would be obliged to put them up, wouldn't you, dummy?
Doing that would give your stupid claim some credibility, wouldn't it, dummy?
Are you there, dummy? Got anything intelligent to say?