[David_Hayward (RIP)]

This is an extract for your info:

PEARSON’S GARAGE AT WAR


.....The factory received a direct hit during a bombing raid in late 1940, but as the walls were left standing a new roof of asbestos sheeting was erected over the workshop and production resumed. Following a meeting with General Motors Limited held at Cuerdon Mill, Bamber Bridge, near Preston in the Spring of 1941, it was decided that Pearson’s workshops were ideally placed for receiving supplies of vehicles being imported from Canada and the USA. The old woollen mill had probably been located for GM Ltd by Pearsons’ who had been and continued to be into the early post-war years, one of their major dealers. This followed the bombing of the Southampton Plant which contained the original Canadian Mechanization Depot, and the loss of military vehicle assembly, and civilian vehicle repairing and spare parts facilities there. Liverpool was also in an area of high Luftwaffe activity, but the port was the nerve centre of the Atlantic convoy routes. Southampton, on the other hand, saw most of its commercial maritime activity being transferred to the Clyde, the Mersey and Bristol Channel ports. Accordingly the Ministries of Supply and of War Production allowed General Motors, Ford of Dagenham, Essex and Chrysler/Dodge of Kew, Surrey to establish assembly plants nearer to these ports. Pearsons’ were to take full advantage of the situation.
Pearsons’ workshops in Liverpool were the central focus of the operation. Despite suffering a direct hit in the winter of 1940/41, the patched-up building with its ever-leaking roof was kept more or less fully operational, even at the height of the Merseyside blitz.
During the years that followed, Pearsons’ assembled thousands of ‘Knocked Down’ (KD) and Partly Knocked Down (PKD) from across the Atlantic, most of which were shipped from America or Canada as crated deck cargo. Liverpool was one of five receiving ports for this kind of traffic, the others being Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow and Newport. However, Liverpool seems to have been the main centre. Once the cargo had been off-loaded at Liverpool, it was rapidly shipped out of the city by rail and taken to three wooded sites at Burscough, Ormskirk and one other (as yet) un-identified location, but almost certainly Cuerdon Mill. At these dumps a camouflage system was employed to disguise the crated trucks from the air, and from these ‘safe’ stores the crates would be taken back (two or three at a time) on low-loaders to Pearsons’ workshops in the city. Here they would be assembled by a small core of men in reserved occupations, who were aided by a number of youths, ‘retired’ men, and an army of women workers. The firm assembled vehicles for the British, Canadian and US forces and possibly uniquely, this included Jeeps for all three forces, then handled war-surplus Jeeps post-war for the civilian market. To these should be added large numbers of British vehicles shipped back for refurbishment and further service under Ministry of Supply contracts, and former US and possibly Canadian, vehicles acquired by the Ministry for the British forces and also essential civilian users and the Ministry of Food Production.
The assembly of vehicles in the UK for the Canadian forces preceded by several months those supplied by Canada to M of S demands, placed in Ottawa in late June 1940. This also coincided with huge diverted French orders for some Canadian but mostly US-sourced vehicles, some time before Defence Aid supplies that were then succeeded by Lend-Lease supplies. By January 1941 the first British supplies from Canada started to arrive, in the UK and overseas as required. In the UK the M of S took over responsibility for all War Department and Air Ministry vehicles (not Admiralty for the Royal Navy and Marines) had to arrange for Canadian-order vehicles not able to be assembled in the new CMD (part of Citröen Cars Ltd, Slough, Buckinghamshire) and Lep Transport Ltd (depot in Chiswick, west London) which were under direct contract with the Canadian Government, in other locations. The Ministry contracted with GM Ltd for British Chevrolet orders to be assembled for a short time in Bamber Bridge, and Fords in Dagenham although Ford then set up additional premises. Dodge and Fargo trucks probably went to Kew, but the Ministry subsequently contracted numerous companies around the country to assemble both British and Canadian orders from North America. During 1941 on behalf of the Canadian Government the Ministry appointed Lep Transport in Goole on the Humber, Pearson’s, Tom Garner Ltd of Pendleton, Manchester, and Wm. Alexander & Sons of Falkirk to assemble Canadian-order vehicles. However by the summer of 1942, months after the US entered the war, assembly of Canadian vehicles reached a low level because of shipping problems and lack of components, and very little assembly was undertaken by any of the then M of S “supply plants”. The backlog reached 10,497 vehicles awaiting shipment from Canada but then in late 1942 shipping space greatly increased and the backlog shifted, which required dumps to be set up in Port Talbot and Brands to relieve plant congestion. This coincided with heavy shipments for the M of S and US forces that were assembled all over the UK as well. During 1943 the quantity of Canadian Army vehicles required increased as did those received from Canada which exceeded expectations. The M of S had agreed in June 1943 a 17% share of total M of S assembly plant capacity which was supposed to be 17,500 vehicles per month, but the Canadians had more inventory stored than the two other forces. At the same time, crates with US vehicles assembled by the M of S in the TILEFER plants which, like Pearson’s assembled British and Canadian vehicles “were piling up at an alarming rate” as production fell behind. The Canadians stated that lack of suitable labour caused extreme difficulty in maintaining quality workmanship and increased productivity. By August Citröen’s and Lep Transport were required to increase output through additional capacity and Brands were directly-contracted in September, to increase production to 3,000 units/month. However it was decided that to equip the First Canadian Army for future operations, and the various huge Canadian crate dumps, a 6,000 units/month was necessary. The answer lay with the establishment from 1st October of 1 CEAU at Bordon, Hampshire, a military assembly operation which achieved in a few weeks 3,000 units/month on top of the civilian output (1,013 and 1,866 from Pearson’s alone in 1942 & 1943) until requirements were met in April 1944, shortly before the Normandy invasion. Only replacement vehicles were required subsequently, able to be provided from civilian plants, some of which were no longer needed: 30th June saw Brand’s contract cancelled and similar arrangements made to dispose of surplus stock. Citröen’s received the remaining inventory from the CEAU during May and all material utilised by year end. Brands however continued to operate a Canadian dump so material was readily absorbed from there. The US requirements were met by establishing Motor Vehicle Assembly or MVA companies, with military personnel at eight depots including possibly an existing one in Wern and from January 1944, Bromborough, both near Liverpool
The M of S also had a heavy reduction in requirements, particularly in the LIEFER programme and they closed a number of their plants in the latter half of 1944. The US MVA assembly work began to slacken toward the end of 1943 because the cased vehicles of the most wanted types were not arriving in sufficient numbers. General Lee, the commanding general of Services of supply or SOS, directed that the crates that came in were to be sent to M of S plants in order to keep them operating at capacity, even though the US plants were idle, because the British plants would be badly needed in the spring when the requirements would bring enormously increased shipments. Most of the seven MVA companies that arrived between January and May 1944 were sent to work in British case dumps near the ports, which may have included Pearson’s one in Ormskirk, which evidently included US vehicles. By the end of December 1944 Canadian assembly from M of S plants had dropped to 800 units/month: Pearson’s contribution being 2,106 bringing the total to 5,834. By 8th May 1945 production had dropped to 400 units/month. Citröen’s reduced their staff and output by then to 400-500 p/month, with monthly total of 800-90 p/month.
Subsequently Canadian production was reduced to just six plants, with Citroën’s operating under direct contract and Pearson’s and five others under M of S contract, assembling 150 vehicles per week. By 30th June 1945 requirements had been finalised and running down to closure scheduled. However the M of S whilst also faced with a considerable reduction in demand, had much greater finalised requirements and Canadian production concluded whilst the plants were still running. It was also agreed with the M of S that it was uneconomical to maintain eight storage dumps, some jointly with the Canadians but Citröen’s and Brand’s under direct contract. Consolidation by movement of all Canadian vehicle cases was completed by 31st October into the Slough and Manchester dumps plus Pearson’s. The last Canadian-order vehicles assembled by Citroen’s was on 25th September and Pearson’s on 8th October 1945, and whilst a further 5,971 Canadian vehicles were in the three dumps. Pearson’s presumably incorporated British-order vehicles as well. A few “passenger cars” which probably meant Chevrolet C8A eight-cwt HUP CMPs, to be received and all of these had not been received by December 1945 [the last Canadian contract being CDLV 3619], and so the M of S arranged for uncrating and assembly in one of their plants that they were keeping going for some time: Lep Transport in Chiswick had ceased assembly in 1944, and in Goole sometime in 1945. Pearson’s assembled 1,903 Canadian vehicles in 1945, bringing the total to 7,737 out of total of 88,401 to October 1945 by 33 plants. The last British orders included Demand S/M 6407 and 6524 for C8A 1C11 Staff Cars, one to the former assembled in Oshawa 31st August 1945, although the plant stopped wartime production around mid-September. The highest known Ford contract was for three-ton F.60L units to Contract S/M 6537, but a known F60L/WP was built to contract SM-6537 on 4th September 1945, and the Auto Workers’ Strike started on the 12th, so this would seem to indicate roughly when final shipping to the UK commenced.
Disposal in the US of surplus military vehicles had started in 1944, being handled by the then War Assets Disposals Board to a market eager for any vehicles. During July and August 1945 the Canadian Morrison Mission arrived in the UK to determine what vehicles should be returned to Canada for the use by the post-war Army, and then requested 2,624 cased vehicles which were immediately shipped back. A further 3,229 vehicles were held in abeyance pending a deal with the War Office or other agencies regarding their disposal, and continued to be held until at least November 1945.. Of the remaining vehicles, only 169 were found surplus to Army requirements consisting mostly of tractor units without the cancelled semi-trailers. Some of the cases remaining in the dumps had stood as long as three years by end of June and a large percentage needed repairs before they could be shipped. With the co-operation of the M of S and the operators of the dumps, the case repair programme was carried out in three to four weeks and all residual cases by the November were able to withstand a sea voyage back. By then 1,965 vehicles had been shipped and 659 were held up be a Dockers’ strike and shipping restrictions. Those vehicles not disposed off ultimately in the UK and on the Continent were able to be donated to organisations and countries for humanitarian work, such as the UNRRA
Any vehicles and spare parts not likewise reclaimed by the US Government were dealt with at war’s end under the “Settlement for Lend-Lease, Reciprocal Aid, Surplus War Property and Claims” effected on 6th December 1945, and as regards Canadian stocks by the War Claims Settlement between the United Kingdom and Canada, concluded on 6th March 1946. The agreement settled all claims between the two Governments arising from the disposal in the United Kingdom of surplus war assets of the Government of Canada or from the disposal in Canada of surplus UK war assets. Therefore, any US- or Canadian-owned vehicles, generators, trailers, etc left in the UK and not reclaimed by their respective Governments, were able to be disposed of by the British Government, acting presumably through the M of S.
In 1944, just as the first wholesale disposals of obsolete vehicles was undertaken by the M of S , the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders agreed with the Government what became known as the “SMMT Scheme”. This gave priority on the disposal of surplus vehicles to the UK manufacturers, eg Chevrolet and GMC to General Motors Ltd, Ford and Fordson to Ford Motor Co Ltd, etc and also to the manufacturer’s dealers and contractors although they could also bid wholesale in M of S disposals as well. This excluded vehicles retained by the M of S that were rebuilt for further post-war service or transfer to fire services, Salvage Corps, etc. Further, Vauxhall Motors do not appear to have exercised their rights in respect of passenger cars or Bedfords though Pearson’s were able to.