内容摘要：Under the Biden administration so far, this figure is 2.2% - so almost the same.

Under the Biden administration so far, this figure is 2.2% - so almost the same.

Even at the height of World War Two, the women who worked at New Brighton's amusement arcade turned up for their shifts as usual.Only they were no longer there to sell tickets, run the stalls, or to serve seaside snacks in the cafe.

Rather, they were there to toil in a secret underground factory producing millions of bullets and shell casings for the war effort.Later this year, the tunnels below the original Art Deco arcade in the Merseyside seaside resort will open to the public as a museum.The factory become so important to the war effort that, after a 1944 concert at the nearby Liverpool Empire, Dame Vera Lynn showed her appreciation for the factory's women by singing for them.

Thankfully for the Allies - including the US forces who took over the ground floor in 1943 as an ordnance base - knowledge of the factory was a closely guarded secret.A Luftwaffe aircrew bombing map, uncovered by local historian Cathy Roberts, shows that Nazi Germany was totally unaware of what was really going on inside the Wilkie arcade.

"With all the shells and fuel in there, if it had been hit it would have taken out most of New Brighton," she said.

The New Palace Amusement Centre, next to the Floral Pavilion, was opened by Whilma Howe "Will" Wilkie in August 1939, at a cost equivalent to nearly £1m in today's money.They even had to keep it a secret even from the closest family members, which caused "one of the biggest stresses".

"If anybody found out and felt against it, they could have stopped her from going," she said."It would have meant that [we] could have got in trouble for it."

Ms Fenner described her mother as "an incredibly independent person who knew her own mind", so initially, her decision had come as no surprise."But then the gravity of the situation came in of exactly what it meant - it was one of those things that you hear about that doesn't happen to you."