Beaverbrook, the Spitfire genius who won the war
The death of Squadron Leader Mark Long who died when his Spitfire crashed at the weekend saddens me and serves as a reminder of just how much we all owe the young pilots, some only teenagers, who were killed in their Spits and Hurricanes fighting the Luftwaffe in WW2.
It also brought to mind that without Lord Beaverbrook those kids might have had nothing to fly, indeed without him we would probably have lost the war and in double quick time. The Beaver was a genius in so many ways, certainly as the architect and supreme editor of the Expresses, but also as Churchill’s most important and trusted Cabinet colleague.
Almost the first thing Winston Churchill did on becoming prime minister and wartime leader in May 1940 was to ask his old friend Max to take the helm as Minister of Aircraft Production. No, was the immediate reply. It was the also second and third but after four days he finally gave in though strictly on his terms. And it was those terms which in many ways led to victory and the freedom we enjoy to this day.
The Beaver insisted that he would do it his way; he would be answerable to Churchill only and the Air Ministry was to shut up and stay away. He would not run his ministry as other departments were organised, meeting after meeting and an avalanche of minutes and memos. No, No, No!
Instead he would follow his instincts which, after all, had served him so well with his newspapers and other commercial ventures. He was the Master Maverick. And so he began work, not in Whitehall but in his grand London home, Stornoway House overlooking St James’ Park. Recruitment began, where else, at the Express, where he took four of his most trusted managers. Within a week his full team was in place, among them Sir Charles Craven, chairman of Vickers-Armstrong the arms manufacturer, and a promising young industrialist, Patrick Hennessy, who went on to be chairman of Ford.
The problems were legion: not enough fighter planes; not enough materials and in particular the need for new factories to produce Spitfires and Hurricanes. The one Supermarine factory that had been making them was in Southampton and as soon as the Nazis had taken France that became the German bombers’ prime target, just a short haul away across the Channel. Planes were being destroyed without ever taking to the skies.
Beaverbrook’s solution was simple: make the parts all over the country, then assemble them into the finished article and let them fly and take on the enemy. It became the original Airfix toy though rather deadlier. Thus motor garages were requisitioned in Reading, Salisbury and most notably Castle Bromwich in the Midlands, home to Morris Motors. The no doubt apocryphal story goes that the Beaver rang the Morris chairman Lord Nuffield to tell him he was about the join the war effort whether he liked it or not. Nuffield was said to be on the loo and told his secretary to inform the caller ‘I can only deal with one shit at a time.’
Meanwhile every one of the multitude of rooms at Stornoway House was full of secretaries, managers, planners and messengers at all hours. The ballroom was used, so too was the terrace and the bathrooms had been commandeered as typing pools.
It worked. In six months production of fighters tripled from 638 to 1,875 just in time for the Battle of Britain. So next time you think of Beaverbrook, think of him as the Man who Won the War. Because without him, his stubborn self-belief and his genius, what might have happened is unthinkable.
*****
Poor Rishi Sunak hasn’t got off to the best start in this election campaign as the Drone has brilliantly chronicled. The deluge, the Exit signs, Morons Bakery and the Titanic centre in Belfast. Why did he even go to that great city, after all he has no candidates standing in Northern Ireland? And now police have announced they are no longer looking into Angela Rayner’s complicated housing arrangements.
But if you read only the Mail you would be forgiven for thinking it is Starmer who is having it tough. The latest piece of utter nonsense from Quentin Letts is proof that he has abandoned his ability for genuine humour for painful party bias at any costs. He talks of Starmer’s home town of Oxted as a feeder for Croydon.
Oh please! On that basis Windsor is the feeder for Slough. I happen to know Oxted very well because it is just three miles from the village of Tatsfield, my home for 35 years. My daughters went to the excellent Oxted School as did Laura Trott, Chief Secretary to the Treasury (well for now anyway) and it is the archetypal middle-class small town. True Blue and it’s difficult to think of it as anything but. House prices are from £500,000 to £3.5 million plus and it is awash with fine restaurants, one of which we shall be returning to this weekend.
It may be only nine miles from Croydon and 25 minutes on the train but really, it’s a world away. Stick to the funny stuff Quentin because you’re no good at facts.
*****
Talking of the election (and it will get worse!) isn’t Ed Davey a useless prat? He went paddle boarding on Windermere and fell off five times. Deliberately, we are told, to make a splash for the cameras.
Oh dear, at least when Neil Kinnock tripped and fell into the tide at Brighton it was accidental. And he had the grace to laugh about it. Ed Davey is simply hopeless and the sooner he stands aside for his able deputy Daisy Cooper the better. She was the stand-out member of the most recent Question Time panel. Unless you include Tim Montgomerie who seemed a trifle over-refreshed.
*****
I’m very pleased at the Met has assigned 80 officers to investigate the Post Office scandal. Let’s hope they take no prisoners, or in this case that they do. But the last word on the ghastly Vennells must go to Linda Dance of whom I have written here recently. Our former village sub-postmistress summed up perfectly this awful woman with this verdict:
Too late for her tears.
ALAN FRAME
29 May 2024
