SIR Noel Curtis-Bennett, at the microphone, opens Keighley’s War Weapons Week in a bleak Town Hall Square on November 30, 1940.
Such special wartime weeks, raising specific funds by the sale of National Savings Certificates, National War and Defence Bonds and interest-free loans, attracted important figures and encouraged events and exhibitions.
On this occasion a "battle-scarred" German Messerchmitt was displayed in the Town Hall Square, and a parachute was suspended in the Air Cadet headquarters.
Keighley War Weapons Week raised an impressive £1,040,435. Warship Week in 1942 did even better with £1,320,126. In 1943 Wings for Victory Week reached £1,453,147, and the following year's Salute the Soldier Week £1,102,941.
Even when the war was won, in October, 1945, Thanksgiving Week netted £651,512.
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