53 B.S.A. workers killed when Luftwaffe bombed the factory.
By Ashley Blair
Birmingham, the second largest city in the United Kingdom, has been a hub for industrial and scientific innovation since the twelfth century. It became known as a centre for metal working during the English Civil War. The inventions and manufacturing enterprises within the city played a major part in the industrial revolution and the city continued as a manufacturing centre long after the Second World War. The main Birmingham Small Arms factory was built in the district of Small Heath in the 1860’s. Three years before the Second World War had even begun B.S.A. started preparations for conflict when an extensive Air Raid Precaution scheme was set up and the planning office and tool room were put on overtime.
As well as the 126,334 M20 motorcycles made for the allies during WW2, B.S.A. produced folding paratroop bicycles, Lee Enfield rifles, Sten guns, Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns, Hispano Suiza aircraft cannons, Browning machine guns, Besa machine guns and the B.S.A. Daimler Scout car. The B.S.A. also made armament components and munitions. According to Donavan Ward in his book The Other Battle, B.S.A. produced a total of 5,000,000,000 individual components during the war. That works out to 1,650 parts made every single minute for the duration of the war. After Dunkirk, B.S.A. employees all agreed to do seven shifts a week but the workers became so exhausted this was later scaled back to six days a week.
The German were just as aware of what was being made at Small Heath as they were of the Spitfires, Lancasters, and Hurricanes being built in Birmingham. Other Birmingham factories like Dunlop, Kynoch, Lucas, the Norton, James Cycle, British Timken and the Wolseley were also manufacturing for the war effort. All of this industry made Birmingham a prime target for the Luftwaffe. The B.S.A. was particularly easy for raiders to find as the canal which ran alongside the factory could often be seen at night. Maps supplied to the Luftwaffe aircrew had the B.S.A. factory at Small Heath marked out as a target of special importance. The worst air raid was on Tuesday 19th November 1940. This raid killed 53 B.S.A. workers while 16 awards for gallantry were earned by those involved in rescuing survivors, including eight to B.S.A. employees.
At about 7:15 pm on 19 November 1940 the thousand B.S.A. workers on the night shift heard the air raid sirens. Most workers headed off to the air raid shelters with their coats and gas masks, a journey that took nearly five minutes. The shelters were some distance from the factory across the road. Many workers, believing it to be just another false alarm, stayed working at their machines. The B.S.A. Company had notices posted in every shop saying that when the sirens sounded everyone was entitled to go to the shelters and they were not to be criticised for doing so. Those who chose to stay on at their machines until the last possible moment knew how vital production was to the war effort. That Tuesday night, when aircraft were heard overhead, it was too late for many to get across the road to the shelters as all the factory lights had been turned off. Management practice was to turn off the electricity when raiders were almost overhead so those workers still at their machines would be forced to go to the shelters.
Frank Hiley was one of the workers who stayed at his machine. When the lights went out, signalling that the raiders were very close, he had to descend four flights of stairs guided only by his torch. On the way down he helped Charles Minor who was 68 years old and known as “Old Charlie.” They made for the basement where about eighty people sat on wooden benches in the light of hurricane lamps. Just before eight o’clock “Old Charlie” settled down to try and get some sleep. Frank continues the story:
“Then comes a dull thud, and bright lights stab the darkness for a second, then a rumbling noise, as though the whole building is being crushed in a pair of huge pinchers. The one thing I had always said would never happen had happened. A bomb had hit the outside wall and the whole building had collapsed like a pack of cards. Hundreds of tons of machinery had descended on us. What happened next I hardly know, for I must have been knocked out by a blow on the head. How long I was unconscious I do not know, but perhaps not long, for I came round to find that my two companions had been killed and crushed beside me.”
Two bombs had collapsed the “New Building” which housed most of the Browning machine gun manufacturing plant as well as machines for making parts for Bren and Besa guns, Boys anti-tank rifles, Le Enfield rifles and motorcycle parts. Rescue teams, firemen and first aid workers arrived at the collapsed building to the sound of bombs in the distance, the crackling of flames and the cries of the injured. To add to the noise and confusion, belts of Browning machine gun ammunition began exploding from the heat of the fires. The rescuers learned that a large number of workers were trapped under the rubble. Within minutes the first pump from the B.S.A. works was attempting to dowse the flames. Soon there were twenty pumps in action and by 10:30 pm more than 60 pumps from all over Birmingham were in action using water from the nearby Birmingham and Warwick Canal.
The girder that had crushed his co-workers had miraculously protected Frank Hiley from the full force of the collapse. He was encased in a small cavity made of jumbled machinery, bricks and concrete that had come down from the floors above. The cries of injured and dying men and women were all round him. He was surprised to find that he had no broken bones although one of his feet was trapped. After nearly an hour of struggle he managed to free his foot and wriggle his way into a space about the size of a fireplace. The relief at getting his foot free was short lived as he saw that fire, which had started near his feet, was beginning to burn fiercely. He moved under a machine which had come to rest near him where he felt safer from falling debris. But the fire came closer and closer. The fire began burning the wooden form that he had been sitting on and started burning his dead companions. While he was still calling out for help he noticed that the cries of other victims were becoming fainter. Suddenly he felt a trickle of water and realised that frantic efforts were being made above him to put out the fire. In spite of the efforts of fire fighters the fire kept burning and reached Frank’s boots, then his clothes. Just when he had resigned himself to his fate he felt a draft of fresh air.
With a frantic effort he managed to put out the fire on his clothes. He became thoroughly soaked from water pouring down from fire hoses but he had calmed down enough by this time to get out his pipe and tobacco, which were still dry. All his matches were damp so he used hot coals from the fire to dry his matches before he could light his pipe! His next problem was the water which began to rise up on the concrete floor he was laying on making him really cold. He managed to move some slabs of broken concrete to make a platform to lie on just above the water level. He was now the only one left shouting into the darkness and for a long time there was no reply. Then very faintly he could hear rescuers and later he heard a voice asking where he was before the collapse. The voice told him to hang on. Frank continued:
“Then I can hear rumbling noises above me, and I realise they are moving wreckage to get at me. I wait. It seems hours. Why don’t they hurry? Little did I know until afterwards the amount of debris they had to move. I was now excited and still kept shouting to them, and then I can hear them shouting down a small hole, almost over me. They ask me if I am injured or crushed, I tell them I am alright except for the fire.”
After the rescuers had cut away metal and removed concrete they could see Frank’s torch. The hole was enlarged and eventually a rope was lowered and Frank was dragged to freedom and the congratulations of the rescuers. He had been trapped for nine hours.
When Frank finally arrived back at his house he was shocked to find that it had been destroyed by a bomb. His wife had escaped and was staying with neighbours. Frank was one of the lucky ones. 53 B.S.A. workers aged from 18 to 68 were killed in the raid including ten women.
Following the raid there was a massive operation to restart armament production, particularly the Browning machine gun manufacture. Much of the Small Heath plant was dispersed away from Birmingham. As soon as the remains of the collapsed building were cool enough workers began salvaging machines, tools and parts. Company officials, armed with copies of a letter from the War Office authorizing B.S.A. to take over any buildings it needed, travelled throughout the Midlands looking for suitable premises. This did not go down well with many factory owners. In Stoke-on-Trent the B.S.A. official was summoned to the Town Hall to face the Lord Mayor as well as the President and Secretary of the Potteries Association. After a furious argument the man from B.S.A. agreed to relinquish the claim on a particular factory if another building storing sugar was made available. The Ministry of Food agreed and within three hours an 8 ton truck and 20 men had left Small Heath to shift the sugar to a dance hall. Following close behind was the first lorry load of factory equipment.
The heroic efforts made by rescuers that night and the next morning resulted in sixteen medals and citations for bravery awarded to people working in the rubble of the B.S.A. to save trapped workers.
Albert Bailey, who was awarded the George Medal, used his rifle as a crowbar to move debris and had already rescued five men and a girl when he saw a hole in the rubble. He squeezed his way in until he was stopped by a large concrete slab. He could hear voices on the other side of the slab and managed to smash a hole through the concrete. When he shone his torch through he could see four men and a girl huddled on the other side. He used an iron bar to make the hole bigger but was defeated by a steel girder that blocked the way. Bailey wriggled out, found an electrician with an oxy-acetylene cutter, and returned with him to cut the girder. By this time the fire was so fierce that other rescuers followed them into the rubble with a fire hose which was used to cool their smouldering clothes. At one point Bailey held up a piece of concrete above his head to prevent it falling and trapping them. When the hole was large enough the trapped men insisted the girl should be rescued first. Water from the fire hoses was now so hot from the burning debris that it was scalding rescuers. Just as the last of the trapped men was led to safety the hole collapsed into the blazing wreckage.
The telephone system was put out of action early in the raid and Private William Saragine of the Home Guard volunteered to ride a motorcycle to get more fire crews. Although no mention of what type of motorcycle he rode was made in the reports and citations of the time we would like to think that it was a B.S.A. M20. Saragine, who had not ridden a motorcycle for some time, was knocked off it no less than three times by blasts from exploding bombs. On one of these occasions he landed 40 yards from the motorcycle he was riding. He also ran over live overhead tram wires that had come down and it was only his rubber boots and the rubber tyres of the motorcycle that saved him from electrocution. Private Saragine rode over fifty miles rounding up reinforcements and was awarded the British Empire Medal.
George Medals, “for conspicuous gallantry in carrying out hazardous work in a very brave manner” were awarded to: Albert William Bailey, 6th Birmingham Battalion, Home Guard; John Hadley, A.R.P. rescue party; and Alfred F. Stevens, a B.S.A. electrician.
British Empire Medals, “for gallant conductin carrying out hazardous work in a very brave manner” were awarded to: John Hastings Beattie, Sub Section Leader, Home Guard; Ada Mary Deeming, matron, B.S.A.; Alfred Walter Goodwin, works electrician, B.S.A. Guns Ltd.; Arthur Richard Edmund Harris, pipe fitter, B.S.A. Guns Ltd.; William Saragine, volunteer, Home Guard; Albert Slim, grinder, B.S.A.; and Joseph Topham, Section Leader, Home Guard.
The Kings Commendation was awarded to: Samuel Simpton Ashburner, fitter, B.S.A.;
Edwyn Hoof, electrician, B.S.A.; Private Frank Knight, volunteer, Home Guard; George John Treen, volunteer, Home Guard; Earnest Williams, works browner, B.S.A.; and George Wilson, volunteer, Home Guard.
On 8 October 2005 a bronze sculpture by Lorenzo Quinn called ‘The Tree of Life’ was unveiled in Birmingham. It is in memory of the 9,000 victims, including 2,241 who were killed, in the 77 air raids on Birmingham in WW2.
Acknowledgements
Carl Chin, Professor of Community History, University of Birmingham.
Domniki Papadimitriou, Picture Librarian, Birmingham Museums Picture Library.
References:
Hiley, Frank (2003). WW2 People’s War. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/32/a2116432.shtml
Minton, Michael (2002). Heroes of the Birmingham Air Raids: A Tribute to Birmingham’s Heroes 1940-1943 with Details of Medals Awarded. Studley: Brewin Books Ltd.
The Star, April 2006.
Ward, Donovan (1946). The Other Battle. York: Ben Johnson and Co.