Useful notes: Worker′s Weekend

This clip sets out to be ‘A tribute to the workers of the British Aircraft Industry’. Men and women in a factory in the North-West of England set themselves the task of building a Wellington bomber in the record time of 30 hours. Constructing in their own time, the workers donate the bonus they got to the Red Cross ‘Aid to Russia Fund’. The cameras capture the whole process of the construction in record time through to the test pilot taking off in the plane, ahead of schedule.

The film makes more sense if you know what was happening at the time it was made. By October 1943 the tide of the war had turned against Germany. The Germans were losing ground against the USSR′s Red Army in the East. However, the USSR′s allies, Britain and the USA, were not yet ready to try and invade France and drive the Germans out. One way they did strike at Germany was through a massive bombing campaign. British and US bombers attacked German cities, military targets and industrial targets.