Chapter 14

POST-WAR PRODUCTION

By early 1945 the promise of victory in Europe encouraged the Management of the Wolseley Company to give serious consideration to the problem of the return to peacetime production. The problem was indeed a complicated one. Large areas of the factory had been destroyed in the air raids and had wiped out vast quantities of materials and components left over when car building had stopped in the early days of the war.

Again, there was the problem of deciding the order in which the various models should be reintroduced; the choice ranging from the 25-h.p. model to the new Wolseley " Eight," whose original introduction had been swept aside by the outbreak of war. It was eventually planned that as soon as circumstances permitted a start would be made on the production of the " Twelve," " Fourteen " and " Eighteen " models, since these could together be produced on a single assembly line. Subsequently, other lines would be opened for the other models.

Nothing definite could be decided, however, since it was obvious that motor-car production could only recommence as and when both the necessary machine tools and assembly space were released from munition requirements, and although it seemed certain that the war in Europe could not last much longer, the prospect in the Far East war zones seemed far less encouraging. It was impossible to foretell which war contracts would come to an end with the cessation of hostilities in Europe, and which would continue until the final cease fire.

In April, 1945, just before V.E. Day, the matter was unexpectedly brought to a head by the receipt of an order from the War Office for a fleet of Wolseley " Eighteens." To be able to recommence the production of motor-cars against a Government contract simplified the problems enormously, and the requirement for the " Eighteen " as the first model to go into production meant only slight modifications to the original planning drawn up by the Management. The enthusiasm in the factory was tremendous when the first chassis and body came together. Six years of concentration on the manufacture of weapons of war had altogether changed the atmosphere of the factory. Many of the employees had undertaken jobs vastly different from their peacetime occupations, and despite the output records they had achieved in these strange surroundings, their old interest in the real production of the factory, the production of high quality motor-cars, was always latent-never dead.

Practically coinciding with V.J. Day celebrations, the return to car production was greeted with understandable enthusiasm and thankfulness, and on September 4th, within a day of the sixth anniversary of the outbreak of war, the first post-war Wolseley left the factory.

As soon as the Government contract. for the " Eighteens " was completed, cars of this type for civilian use came off the production lines and were quickly followed by the " Fourteen " and " Twelve " models. The " Ten " was the next model to be reintroduced, but the ill fortune which had previously caused the postponement of the introduction of the new Wolseley " Eight " still seemed to haunt this model. In the winter of 1945 the experimental prototype was stolen, and for some days the Design Department were on tenterhooks lest its disappearance should once more cause the postponem-,nt of the introduction of this model. Fortunately, however, the missing car was found a few days later by the police in London.

Towards the end of 1946, an unusual vehicle made its appearance on the assembly lines at Ward End. This was the " Oxford " Taxicab-now a familiar sight in London. Although it was in February, 1947, that the first production taxicab left the factory, the prototype of this design had been placed in service in London during the war, and had operated continuously through all the wartime vicissitudes of London traffic. It had certainly proved itself, covering nearly 100,000 miles before the end of the war, and remains in operation to-day, d veteran of ten years' service.

The return to peacetime activities was rapid, and in the knowledge that the many engineering lessons learnt in the war could be turned to account to the great advantage of post-war productions. it was decided to formulate a programme which would, in certain respects, dep2trt from all previous Wolseley practice.

The prevailing conditions governing the supply of raw materials and the desirability, in the interests of economy, of keeping the assembly lines running at their normal speed, made it essential that the number of models for post-war usage, should be restricted, and so it was decided that energies should be concentrated solely on two new productions which would reflect both the metallurgical and engineering developments which had taken place during the preceding war years.

Throughout its long career, the Wolseley Company has refrained steadfastly from making alterations in its'productions for no better reason than for making them; each new adoption or modification has been a definite step forward towards an engineering Nirvana, and the incorporation on these two models, which were known as the " Four-Fifty " and the "Six-Eighty," of such features as independent front-wheel suspension by torsion bar, steering column gear-change, hypoid rear axle and overhead camshaft engine coupled with a beauty of line without sacrificing the famous Wolseley radiator and other features which, for so many years, have been seen in ever-increasing numbers on the highways of the world, was an achievement which demanded the brain of the Engineer and the eye of the Artist.

There is one final development which must now be recorded, resulting from the peculiar conditions under which the Motor Industry has been labouring since the end of the second war. During the long war-years, motor-car manufacturers had pleasant dreams of a post-war production which would maintain their factories at full capacity for many years to come. The introduction of an arbitrary system of material allocation by the Government brought disillusionment, and although order-books were full, the material supply was limited. Accordinglv, in the autumn of 1948 the Nuffield Organization decided on a major rearrangement of their manufacturing resources, so as to concentrate still further on their plan of individual factories specializing in certain types of production, and that machining operations, for example, should be isolated from car assembly. Accordingly, on January lst, 1949, the production of Wolseley cars was transferred from Birmingham to Cowley, Oxford, where the new Wolseleys are being produced from their own assembly lines with the same degree of individual attention, care and craftmanship which has always been associated with the name of Wolseley since its first introduction over fifty years ago.