AFTER the Second World War ended, some stories could be told which could not pass the censor during the conflict.

They were tales of all kinds, of air raids, crashes, exciting experiences, escapes from enemy hands, and also of strange war responsibilities that fell to local firms.

For instance, Henry Crossley (Packings) Ltd, of Halliwell Road, Bolton, made a vital gun part which hastened the end of hostilities in the Central Mediterranean and made possible the pulverising of the German forces in Europe.

In normal times the firm manufactured engine packings and had a close liaison with the Admiralty through their work for H.M. ships, especially submarines. But in the war there was pressure for a new and more effective type of breech block obturator for our guns.

The need was urgent, as the existing method was inefficient to face the severe strain of modern artillery barrage laying and intensive firing. Fortunately, the Crossley research department had been for years interested in improving this particular gun part, and in 1942 they patented an entirely new type of elastic one-piece obturator, so stable that it could remain in a gun all its life, and was guaranteed to seal the breech automatically at firing, with no risk to the gun crew.

After undergoing the sternest tests by experts, the Crossley obturator was adopted by the Government as the standard obturator for all sizes and makes of breech-loading guns for all naval and land services throughout the Empire.

While Bolton slept, or kept watch, obturators by the thousand were being produced at Halliwell on a 24-hour shift. There were conferences, unknown to Bolton, in Halliwell which both military "brasshats" and Government "high-ups" attended. And finally the Bolton obturators, to replace the old breech-blocks in the whole of Montgomery's artillery force, were being flown to Africa in time to blast the Germans out of Sicily.

They were proud days for the Bolton inventors and their staff, but the crowning glory of their technical achievement came after D-Day, when in the Falaise Gap, the guns of the United Nations broke the back of the Wehrmacht.

Falaise has been described as the most critical single operation of the war, and it was an artillery triumph. Germans trapped in the pocket underwent the most devastating and withering continuous fire ever known, and largely because the Allied guns, American as well as British, were equipped with the Crossley Obturator, invented and made by Boltonians.

If you are wondering what an obturator is, let me tell you what appeared in the paper in 1946. The description reads: "a disc fitting into the gun breech, and consists of hardened and ground steel parts, vulcanized into a unity with plasticized neoprene and asbestos fibre mixture. Expansion at the moment of firing automatically seals the gun, preventing any backwash of flame or danger of a gun blowing up; it is capable of being manufactured to precision limits of size, and has proved to be unaffected by extremes of high or low temperature."

The report of the time ended: "When you are walking in the Temple Valley near the Crossley works, keep your eyes alert for the sight of two long guns, pointing out of the factory wall. They are a permanent feature of the place. Their inside portion, the working end, hangs over a bench, and there, if you are lucky, you might watch an obturator fixed.

"A simple operation, but what a lot it meant on the battlefields of two continents."