The onset of World War II again brought about the need for the production of synthetic ammonia at Billingham for explosives. Other products were also needed and the plant became heavily involved the production of high performance aviation fuel for RAF aircraft. 
The production of plastics established in 1934 was used in the construction of aircraft cockpits. Other work relating to the war time hostilities included secret work carried out in relation to the development of atomic bombs. This work was given the code name tube alloys.
I was an apprentice, craftsman and later a maintenance supervisor on the “US PLant”, ( so-called because, (a) it was a secret plant and (b) because it was designed and manufactured in the USA to be assembled and operated for the purpose of producing aviation gasoline at ICI. There was a story circulating in my days of a delay in the consruction due to a tubular product being strafed by the Luftwaffe and destroyed before installation. As a young lad my supervisor there was Mr. Robinson, white-haired even then, a great mentor to the small crews who maintained the plant during war years. I also recall “Barney” Maloney, my “mate” and old enough to be my grand-father, with a ready wit, who never let the side down for want of a humourous tale, skilled also at swinging “Big Mundy” with accuracy and unflagging vigour in the tightening or loosening huge nuts and bolts.