Wartime Industry (Shire Library)

An illustrated introduction into industrial life in Britain, as the nation geared up to meet the wartime demand for munitions, armor, shipping, uniforms and aircraft.

In 1939 Britain was pitched into a war on the Continent for which it was ill-prepared, starting the fight against the Nazis on the back foot. As the nation stood alone against Fortress Europe, it desperately needed to turn all of its industrial might firstly to defending itself and then to expelling Axis troops from occupied countries. Peacetime factories such as car plants were turned to aircraft and tank production; the railway network was timetabled around military needs; and women were brought in to work in factories and shipyards, to fell timber and to bring in the crops. This beautifully illustrated book shows how every aspect of industrial life was coordinated to equip the fight for victory, and how Britain made it.