Lancaster Bomber built at Broughton marks 80th anniversary
A 99-year-old who worked on the first Lancaster bombers to be built at an aerospace factory is returning to watch a flypast by one of the aircraft.The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will mark the 80th anniversary of the plane's creation in north Wales.Ken Shield lived in Broughton, Flintshire, and worked at the town's aerospace factory at the start of the World War Two, fitting instruments to the planes.After joining the Welsh Guards, his skills were later put to use as one of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's security team.
Ken began working at Broughton in 1940 aged 14 with his dad Fred, who was foreman at the site. He initially worked on Wellington bombers but soon the production line was filled with Lancaster bombers. Ken was uniquely qualified to fit the instruments in the cockpit.He said: "I was very small and you had to crawl down the plane's interior to fix certain instruments. "I could do it but if you were broad, you couldn't. "That was my introduction to the Lancasters."
Despite war raging, Ken said life went on even though "death was around the corner".He worked alongside a woman called Marjorie at Broughton. "She worked on the outside skin of it and I'd pop the stuff inside," is how he described their roles on the production line.After sharing a dance at a local pub the couple began dating, and were later married for 75 years until Marjorie's death in 2023.
Ken has been invited to the Broughton factory, now owned by Airbus, for the Battle of Britain Memorial flight marking the 80th anniversary of the Lancaster Bomber.He will watch a flypast by the aircraft as well as a Spitfire and Hurricane to mark the Lancaster's return to where it was built in May 1945.For Ken, it will bring back memories of watching the first one leave the plant.He said: "Most of the factory crept outside to watch the first one going up. "It took off and everybody was there waving. The foreman realised there was no work being done and he was playing hell with us. "We went back inside but the moment we heard the plane was landing we went out again."
Ken left Broughton in 1943 to join the Welsh Guards. After surviving a bomb attack at his base in London, his expertise with aircraft radio equipment meant he was soon recruited to join Churchill's security team at Chequers - the prime minister's country retreat."They'd have very big conferences with generals and field marshals," he said. "My job, with others, was to arrange security. I was allowed to stop anyone going in if I didn't like them."He said Churchill was "very off-handed" with the military security officials and had a nickname for one general."He used to call him pug," he said. "He'd shout 'Pug!' and the general would go running down the alley to the office."Now, 80 years after the end of the war, the Airbus factory in Broughton is still producing wings.Ken will have a front row seat to witness the historic aircraft he helped build as it pays a rare return visit to its birthplace.
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