History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Civil Series
Edited by W. K. Hancock
British War Production
By M. M. Postan
Fellow of Peterhouse College, Cambridge
Professor of Economic History in the University of Cambridge
London 1952
HMSO
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introductory: The Lean Years
‘No Major War’—The Naval Standards—The Rations of the RAF—The Disarmed Army
Chapter 2: Early Rearmament, 1934–1938
Obstacles, Financial and Industrial—The Re-equipment of the RAF—The Renovation of the Navy—The ‘Cinderella’ Service—The War Potential
Chapter 3: From Peace to War, October 1938 to June 1940
The Munich Inquests—The Two-Power Navy and Emergency Programmes—Aircraft Production ‘To the Limit’—The Size of the Army—The Blueprint of War Production—The End of Financial Limitations—The Beginning of Controls, Priorities and Stockpiling—The Problem of Skilled Labour—The Progress of Industrial Mobilisation
Chapter 4: From Dunkirk To Pearl Harbor
The Emergencies—The Strategic Plan—The Bomber Programmes—The Irreducible Army—The New Administration—The Mobilisation of Labour—Priority and Allocation—The Bombers Delayed—The Shells and the Guns—The Tank and its Gun
Chapter 5: From Pearl Harbor to Victory in Europe: The Offensive Strategy
Introductory: The Two Summits—The Offensive Strategy—The Economic Strains—Machine Tools—Raw Materials—The Labour Famine—The American Munitions—The New Need—Self-sufficiency—Towards a Merger—A Common Pool—The Ministry of Production—The ‘Gap’—The Personal Office—The Production Staff—The Growing Authority—The Designation of Work—The ‘Might Have Been’
Chapter 6: From Pearl Harbor to Victory in Europe: The Ebb and Flow of Munitions
Ebb and Flow—The Offensive Tools—Bolero—Pluto—Mulberry—Landing Craft—Naval Construction and Shipbuilding—Escorts and Landing Craft—Buoyant Output—The Merchant Ships—Aircraft Production—The ‘Realistic’ Programmes—Production Lost and Redeemed—Repairs and Spares—The Quality of Aircraft—The Doctrine of Quality—Expectations and Delays—Abridgement of Timetable—Modifications—Equipment for the Army—The Initial Expansion—The Cuts—The Resilient Output—Production of Radio—The ‘Inter-Service’ Weapon—Capacity Transcended—The Valve Programmes—The Industrial Problem
Chapter 7: The Demobilisation of Industry
The ‘Run Down’—Stage I—Stages II and III—The Reconversion
Chapter 8: The Structure of Munitions Industry
The Division of Production—Production Specialised and Unspecialised—Inheritance and Necessity—Sub-division of Production and ‘Free Issues’—Groups
Chapter 9: Government and Industry
Public Ownership and Management—Private Ownership and Control—Prices, Profits and Assisted Investments—Programmes and Plans
Appendices
Appendix 1: Naval Programmes of New Construction
Table A. ‘Deficiency’ Programme, approved November 1935
Table B. ‘Accelerated’ Programme of 1936 and 1937 and ‘Rationed’ Programme of 1938 and 1939 up to outbreak of war
Table C. Estimated requirements of small vessels, 1940 and 1941
Appendix 2: Development of German Air Power, 1933–34
Table D. First-line strength, August 1938-December 1944
Table E. Aircraft production, 1933-44
Appendix 3: Principal United Kingdom Aircraft Programmes, 1938–44
Table F. Scheme L (as revised in September 1938)
Table G. ‘War Potential’ Programme of July 1938, based on the hypothesis of a war commencing 1st October 1939
Table H. ‘Harrogate’ Programme, dated 19th Jan. 1940
Table I. Mr. Hennessy’s ‘Target’ Programme, dated 2nd October 1940
Table J. Revised Draft ‘Target’ Programme, dated 3rd July 1941
Table K. The ‘Bomber’ Programme, dated December 1941
Table L. The ‘Consolidated’ Programme, dated July 1942
Table M. The ‘Realistic’ Programme, dated January 1943
Table N. The ‘Realistic’ Programme, as revised in April 1943
Table O. The ‘Realistic’ Programme, as revised in September 1943
Table P. The First ‘Manpower Allocation’ Programme, dated 1944
Table Q. The Second ‘Manpower Allocation’ Programme, dated August 1944
Appendix 5: Estimated Total Requirements of Machine Tools, 1942–45
Appendix 6: Notes on Compositions of Tables 1, 54 and 55
Tables
1. Expenditure on armaments and warlike stores, 1924–33
2. Estimated annual expenditure on rearmament, 1934–39
3. Numbers of aircraft programmed and delivered respectively, January-June 1939
4. The naval standards, 1939–36
5. Estimate of expenditure of ‘deficiency’ programmes of the Army for the five years beginning 31st March 1936
6. Average number of naval ships of corvette size and above, in hand for large refit and repair at the end of each month, April 1940—December 1941
7. Number and types of vessels converted for war service, 1939–41
8. War Office requirements of certain items, December 1938 and April 1940 respectively
9. Distribution of the industrial labour force, 1939 and 1940, expressed in percentages
10. Deliveries of some war-stories during the period October 1938—June 1940
11. Anti-Aircraft Guns: requirements, forecasts and deliveries
12. Output of principal army weapons, British and German, September 1939—May 1940
13. War Office requirements under the pre-Dunkirk and post-Dunkirk requirements
14. War Office requirements of cruiser and infantry tanks, August 1940—December 1941
15. War Office requirements of certain war-stores, August 1940—December 1941
16. War office requirements of principal types of ammunitions, as communicated to the Ministry of Supply in April 1940, August 1940 and May 1941
17. Production of some essential raw materials, 1935–41
18. Supplies of certain raw materials in the United Kingdom, 1939–41
19. Structure weight index of aircraft production corrected by man-hour equivalents, 1940 and 1941
20. United Kingdom ‘production-expenditure’ on aircraft 1934–42
21. Index of Ministry of Supply output of war-stores, May 1940—December 1941
22. Ministry of Supply: deliveries of important groups of stores, May 1940—December 1941
23. Production of ammunition during 1941
24. Production of Bofors guns, tank and anti-tank guns, May 1940—December 1941
25. Production of tanks to December 1941
26. Commitments approved for machine tools and plant, 1936–42
27. Admiralty expenditure on plant and machine tools for naval shipbuilding and marine engineering contractors, 1940–44
28. Estimated requirements and actual supplies of machine tools to supply departments, September 1939 to December 1944
29. Supplies of machine tools, by numbers, 1939–44
30. Supplies of small tools, by value, 1940–44
31. Production of some essential raw materials, 1942–44
32. Manpower allocations to the end of 1943 as authorised in December 1942
33. Manpower allocations to the end of 1943 as revised in July 1943
34. Manpower allocations for 1944
35. United Kingdom requirements of army weapons, as submitted to the Victory Conference, September 1941
36. Supplies of groups of certain war-stores from the United States and production in the United Kingdom and Empire, September 1939—August 1945
37. Landing craft: number and tonnage under construction, 1942—June 1944
38. Smaller naval vessels: production forecasts in July 1941 and actual production to April 1942
39. Naval tonnage completing between January 1941 and June 1944
40. The ‘Realistic’ programme for 1943 and the previous aircraft programme
41. Output of aircraft, 1942–44: numbers, structure weight and structure weight corrected man-hours
42. Number of aircraft going to the Metropolitan Air Force: (a) from new production, (b) from repair output, January 1941—July 1945
43. Heavy bombers: number going to the Metropolitan Air Force, 1942–44
44. Aircraft awaiting spares as percentages of all aircraft with the RAF Home Commands, June 1941—June 1945
45. Aircraft: stages of design and development
46. Labour force in the munitions industries of the Ministry of Supply, January—December 1943
47. Index of Ministry of Supply total output of warlike stores, 1942–44
48. Index of Ministry of Supply output of guns, small arms, ammunitions, tanks, engineer and transportation stores, 1942–44
49. Total expenditure of the Admiralty, Ministry of Supply and MAP on radio and radar, 1939–44
50. Estimated reductions in manpower in the supply departments during the first eight weeks following VJ-Day
51. Estimated size of munitions labour force in supply departments, August—December 1945
52. Labour force on munitions production in the Ministry of Supply, August 1945—March 1946
53. The numbers of insured persons in certain industries, June 1939 and November 1946
54. Average number of wage-earners per establishment in the United Kingdom (1935) and the United States (1939)
55. Percentage of total number of wage-earners in establishments employing less than 100, 101 to 500, 501 to 1,000, over 1,000 wage-earners in the United Kingdom (1935), the United States (1939)
56. Summary of the Government’s actual annual expenditure on fixed capital for war production, 1st April 1936–31st March 1945