Assembly of North American Harvards at Shawbury.

This was a most interesting posting and Harry found himself working in a grass covered curved roofed hangar on the far side of the airfield. The station was basically a Flying Training School but he was nothing whatever to do with that.
There were nine of them under a Sergeant, an American civilian who went by the name of ‘Red Long’ and was a sort of Charge Hand and the Officer in charge was a Lieutenant Alexander T. Burton of the United States Army Air Corps.
“Red” belonged to the North American Aviation Company Inc. and the job for the unit was the assembly of the new Harvard trainer.

This was an all-metal monoplane with a Pratt and Whitley engine, and came in two packing cases. One contained the airframe and the other the engine.
There was a Ransom and Rapier crane, which had back wheel bogie steering, so was very manoeuvrable and with this the boxes were dismantled and the aircraft assembled.
The crates were bolted together with large hexagon headed coach bolts and these had to be removed with a special tool. This was an air-driven tool resembling a pneumatic drill, which withdrew the bolts in one go.
The operator had to brace himself quite strongly as the torque was terrific and Harry had his signet ring squashed on his finger and had to have it cut off.
On removing the lid of the crate, the fuselage could be seen resting on the bottom, the wings on the sides and the tail unit on the ends. The sides and ends were lowered, the pieces removed, and then the fuselage was lifted and the undercarriage lowered.
Assembly then took place as it made its way down the hangar, eventually going out the opposite end a complete aircraft. The airframe side was a much cleaner job as the engine was packed with thick protective grease, which all had to be removed before assembly.
The first one to be completed was numbered N 7000 and when it was taken out and started up it was to be discovered that the RAF now had the noisiest aircraft yet.
At full revolutions, the row was unbelievable. It was a strange set-up in the hangar for the stores department was separated from the remainder of the hangar by a chain link fence.
Smoking was permitted in the stores but not in the hangar. The Stores system too was excellent. Each man was issued with a quantity of numbered brass discs; each having a separate number, and one master list of these was kept in the office.
When anything was required in the way of tools, there was no signing a receipt; one of those persons’ discs was handed in and hung on a hook adjacent to where the item normally was stored.
This did away with dirty greasy records having to be kept and of course when the item was returned that operator got his disc back. There was a fixed charge for the loss of a disc, in the States, but that was not enforced there.
The Americans were super chaps and a pleasure to work with. They lived in a Hotel in Shrewsbury and commuted each day by car.
When they first landed at Liverpool they bought two Vauxhall 14s’ and during the day one of these was always available for the use of Harry and his colleagues if they had to go across to main camp for any reason.
They would also bring bags of buns, which used to be placed in the oven in the Warden’s Lodge at the gate and eaten at break time. At Christmas time that year, they were all given a drink and a Xmas box. Harry was to receive £1, which was a fair sum in those days.
They were a smart looking outfit in their white overalls with the name of the company “NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION COMPAMY INC.” across the back in large letters. They were issued with superb American tool kits, which unfortunately had to be handed in again at the end of their stay.
The Harvard was a very useful aircraft, a two-seat trainer that fitted nicely into that stage between the initial trainer and the Spitfire or Hurricane. It was of very rugged construction and could stand a lot of punishment though you could not take chances with it. As much as he would have liked to he did not manage to get a flight in one.
However all good things must come to an end and once again he was to find himself on the move, this time to Stradishall in Suffolk.
Incidentally he never did see his motor bike again despite leaving a sum of money with a chap who had promised to put it together and on the train to him. (He had bought it disassembled at his previoius station.)