Enjoyed many useful/interesting company histories that are often tucked away in the corner of corporate websites Maybe worth dropping WW2-related links into a specific thread as well as where the info applies. Bakeries. 'The Baker Perkins Historical Society'. Epilogue Also Baker Perkins. Guns & baking equipment - 'The Westwood Works'. Westwood Works in World War 2
I went to a corporate event in The Hague a couple of years ago hosted by NLO, which is an IP law firm. I remember seeing this on their website about the bombing of their offices by the RAF in 1944. ID papers were kept in the Kleykamp building nearby and the aim was to save Jewish citizens by destroying them. #TBTNLO: bombing of NLO offices in WW2 | NLO
I live literally 200 yards from the old Westwood Works (now a prison). My uncle Bob used to build Bofors guns there. I even started an engineering apprenticeship there, but the whole regime was a bit too grim for me, so I eventually got into engineering by the more comfortable university route.
The Thin Red Lines by Charles Patrick Ranke Graves is a company history of Cable and Wireless in WW2 whose premises and installations endured such things as air raids and shelling by Japanese warships. An interesting book
Rolls Royce Heritage Trust. History and Timeline - Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust To be honest, it's as if the website (well... websites, as they exist buried in menus on the main RR site) is deliberately laid out to confuse, but some of their publications are superb. Publications Top tip. Ordering from their ebay account is a lot less hassle than the old-fashioned order form arrangement on the website: Items for sale by r-rhtbooks | eBay
The Mitsubishi company history was, apparently, burnt in January 1946. " As requested by your goodselves, we respectfully beg to state that owing to extreme shortage of storage space in our new office building after the evacuation of Head Office Building which was requisitioned by the Allied Forces, we were obliged to destroy by burning the large part of old business papers and records in the beginning of January and consequently are unable to avail ourselves with the record which you require. However, Mr. Sasaki formerly in charge of that department recollects the following information pertinent to request. OPIUM IMPORT FROM IRAN...." See here: https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/0d3519/pdf Mitsubishi website official history: vol.21 Koyata Iwasaki—Standing by His Convictions to the Very End | Mitsubishi Corporation " In 1941, the Pacific War broke out. Many Mitsubishi factories sustained damage as the war intensified. Koyata,{ fourth President } however, continued to visit factories because he believed that encouraging frontline workers was one of his primary responsibilities as president. After Japan was defeated in 1945, the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ("GHQ") called for the "voluntary" dissolution of Japan's large, family-controlled conglomerates. The other conglomerates complied immediately, but Mitsubishi held out. Koyata remarked, "We have done nothing to be ashamed of." Although his health had deteriorated under the strain of the wartime years, Koyata continued to insist that Mitsubishi's voluntary dissolution was out of the question. However, Koyata was eventually hospitalized for his illness and Mitsubishi subsequently acknowledged that its dissolution was unavoidable."
The war history of Leyland Motors - its titled 'Tanks, Tanks and then more Tanks' (or something similar) is a superb read if you like....Tanks....as I do, especially Comet. Edit: image located
Not sure British Leyland was quite the same thing but I know a lot about the Morris Marina and two Austin Allegro's !
A brilliantly graphic history of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board during the war with some useful statistics and pictures of the devastation done by bombing and the explosion of a munitions ship. Port at War ~ Liverpool 1939-1945 ~ Mersey Docks and Harbour Board this was taken from the thread on Sherman Tank Imports into the UK. I found it very helpful.
Been on the list for a while now. I'll find it for a reasonable price one day... Ought to scan in the WW2 contemporary company history pamphlets I have. (If only scanning weren't so dull) VW's company history stuff was always very good, though a redesign of the site has confused me immensely. History Somewhere in those publications there used to be an excellent booklet on Major Hirst's role in getting them off their postwar knees. (Though it seems easier finding their history .pdfs on other VW fan sites than on their official pages.)
MV ...Metropolitan Vickers of Trafford Park, Manchester, a long established engineering concern manufacturing steam turbines, generators,switchgear of all voltages,transformers of all voltages,motors of all sizes,power plant unified boiler control and metering. Postwar,the company along with other manufacturers contributed to the rapid installation of power plant capacity for the ever expanding national grid at a time when electricity consumption was increasing at the rate of 8% a year.Alternative fuel.... gas supplies were dependent on gas/coking plants until the discovery of NG in the mid 1960s and the creation of the Gas Grid. During the war the company was involved in the production of Lancasters at a dedicated factory on Trafford Park,turning out 1080 Lancasters and 80 Lincolns towards the end of the war and later for B.C to convert to the Lincoln from the Lancaster with added allocations from AVRO and other contractors. An archive has been created for the company,a company which has had a number of successor companies since it was known as MV.