World War Two Ball Bearing Production

[charlie fitton]

Oddly enough, I just read a few lines on smuggling (by boat) from Sweden...Fairmiles.....must have been mostly bearings.. Full link incl pics of a "fairmile Freighter" below..

"While MGB 502 and 503 went to the covert ops 15th MGB Flotilla upon completion in mid-1943 (and the last of class MGB 509 underwent a redesign to take more powerful petrol engines instead of the diesels), the other five boats had been identified as the most suitable hulls for conversion to fast blockade runners. They would be operating on the dangerous run across the North Sea to Sweden, where they would pick up consignments of vital ball bearings (from a moored British ship) and then run the gauntlet of German patrols to get the high-value cargo back to the UK.

The converted blockade runners were renamed Hopewell, Nonsuch, Gay Viking, Gay Corsair and Master Standfast. They had been modified to look as much like merchantmen as possible:


Almost convincing. And, if the disguise didn’t work, they could always leg it:


And they had a few Oerlikons and machine-guns, just so they could try and shoot their way out of trouble if they had to. Over the course of two winter seasons (maximum darkness) the boats were sent on journeys involving two-day trips each way, many of which were scrubbed due to bad weather or issues with the troublesome Paxman diesel engines. One boat was lost to enemy action and two were rendered non-operational in course of these hazardous operations."

https://www.quora.com/During-WW2-wha...edFbOx8QpIMXWU