MUNITIONS OUTPUT

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 152, 26 December 1945, Page 6

MUNITIONS OUTPUT

BRITAIN'S ACHIEVEMENT

Of all the munitions used by the Armed Forces of the British Commonwealth and Empire (82 million men in all) since the beginning of the war no less than 72 per cent, was produced in the United Kingdom itself, states Mr. Oliver Lyttelton in "The Times" of London. All this we had to do under conditions of almost unbelievable difficulty. We were bombed from the air; against this we had to disperse our production, to black-out our cities, our railways, our roads, our factories. U-boats sank our ships bringing in our lifeblood, food and materials.

Yet with our imports of raw materials cut by 50 per cent, we achieved the highest industrial output ever attained in our history. All men up to the age of 64 and all women to 59 were mobilised. Our export trade was deliberately curtailed so that in 1943 and 1944 it was less than onethird in volume of the 1918 level. This meant hardships for our overseas customers, but it released 1,000,000 men and women for direct war work.