PLANS for Swindon’s War Weapon week gathered momentum as details of the forthcoming events were released.

Publicity was well in hand and 27 poster sites had been selected in Swindon with one each in Wroughton, Highworth and Stratton.

“The GWR and the Post Office were also co-operating in this respect and local cinema managers were meeting to decide upon their contribution to the publicity side of the effort,” reported the Advertiser.

A fund recording indicator measuring 30ft by 20ft, a panoramic representation of the industrial Berlin skyline, would be put up at the town hall.

As funds accrued “bombers and bombs” would be added to the skyline, giving a realistic impression of the fighting value of Swindon’s efforts.

Raymond Thompson, the chairman of the publicity committee, said: “If all goes well, Swindon would finance eight bombers and several hundred bombs, and the sky would more or less be filled.”

The plan was at the end of the week to change the picture and show a Berlin in ruins, with bursting bombs sending debris and flames sky-high.

The campaign would open on Saturday, November 9 with an inaugural procession from the Marlborough Road district beginning at 2.30pm followed by a meeting at the Central Mission Hall.

Among the speakers already announced was Lieut Commander R Fletcher, the Labour MP for Nuneaton.

Provisional plans included decorated buses running from the Rodbourne and Gorse Hill areas and even a fly-past over the town.

Events at the town hall would include an exhibition of war photographs and model aeroplanes and a captured German aircraft on display outside in the car park.

With military bands playing in the town each day, a mobile cinema van touring the streets and speakers addressing the workforce at different factories, Swindon was pulling out all the stops to meet the £200,000 target.