After 80 Years, WWII Bomber Returns Home on a Historic Journey

A Wartime Memory Revisited

In Broughton, Flintshire, 99-year-old Ken Shield prepares to watch an aircraft he once helped build return to the skies above his hometown. The Royal Air Force’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is marking 80 years since the Avro Lancaster bomber was first built at the Broughton factory. For Ken, who worked on the aircraft during the early years of World War II, the event brings memories back to life.

Ken started working at the Broughton plant in 1940 when he was just 14. His father, Fred, was the foreman, and together they worked on Wellington bombers before the site switched to producing Lancasters. Because of his small size, Ken was able to crawl deep inside the aircraft to fit cockpit instruments. “I was very small and you had to crawl down the plane’s interior to fix certain instruments,” he recalled. “I could do it but if you were broad, you couldn’t.”

Life Behind the Factory Walls

Despite the bombing raids and the ongoing war, Ken said that life continued much as normal. “Death was around the corner,” he said, but the workers kept going. He worked alongside a young woman named Marjorie, who handled the outer panels of the bomber. Ken would install parts inside. “She worked on the outside skin of it and I’d pop the stuff inside,” he remembered. After dancing together at a local pub, the two began dating and later married, remaining together for 75 years until Marjorie’s passing in 2023.

The upcoming flypast at the Broughton site—now operated by Airbus—will feature a Lancaster bomber, a Spitfire, and a Hurricane. Ken will be honored as a guest during the flyover, which celebrates the aircraft’s historic connection to the site and the workers who built it.

From Factory Worker to Military Service

In 1943, Ken left the factory and joined the Welsh Guards. His knowledge of aircraft radio systems later placed him in a unique position: he was selected to serve as part of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s security team at Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence.

He described his role: “My job, with others, was to arrange security. I was allowed to stop anyone going in if I didn’t like them.” His technical skill and wartime service placed him at the heart of Britain’s leadership during some of the most serious discussions of the war.

Recalling the First Takeoff

One of Ken’s strongest memories is seeing the first Lancaster take off from the Broughton plant. “Most of the factory crept outside to watch the first one going up,” he said. “It took off and everybody was there waving. The foreman realized there was no work being done and he was playing hell with us. We went back inside but the moment we heard the plane was landing, we went out again.”

He also remembered Churchill’s manner toward the military staff. “He was very off-handed,” Ken said. One general in particular was nicknamed “Pug.” Ken explained, “He’d shout ‘Pug!’ and the general would go running down the alley to the office.”

Looking Back, Looking Up

Today, Broughton is still part of the aviation world, producing aircraft wings for Airbus. But for Ken, the return of the Lancaster means more than an airshow. It connects his early days at the factory with a moment in time when young men and women helped shape the war effort. Now, eight decades later, he will sit and watch the aircraft rise once again from the skies of the place where it was born—and where he helped build it.

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