麻豆官网首页入口

My parents had volunteered for the A.R.P. in 1938, when England started preparing for war. They became the first air raid wardens in our area and my father found himself in charge of "Post J.61". He used to come home from his office in London, change into uniform and go straight off to meetings and courses on Air Raid Protection, First Aid and the use of Gas Masks. He had a Government Poster:
POISON GAS
1916 The Germans used Poison Gas
We did not expect this barbarity
1935 The Italians used Poison Gas
1940 It is your duty to yourself, your family
and your country to be prepared
DONT BE A CASUALTY -
ALWAYS CARRY YOUR GAS MASK

In January 1938 gas masks were first promised to every school child. Then everyone was issued with a gas mask, appropriate to their age - Regular, Junior or Baby Helmets.
For the first two years "Post J.61" was housed in our dining-room until the Government built a permanent post. After the out-break of war, we had a hot-line to H.Q. and used to get coded messages such as "Air-Raid Warning Yellow" which meant that unidentified aircraft were approaching the coast. At first this was followed by "Air-Raid Warning Green" meaning that they had gone away and the coast was clear. The public were unaware of this. It was only when an 鈥淎ir-Raid Warning Red鈥� was received that the sirens sounded and people used to go down to the shelters.
Mummy had a very smart uniform and volunteered to man the phone at H.Q. on a rota During the day she also used to visit mothers with small babies and teach them how to use the Government issue of Baby Helmets, for children too small to use even the Mickey-Mouse type of junior gas-masks. Mothers had to lay their baby inside the "helmet", tie it up securely and continue to pump air for the baby to breathe. If anything happened to the mother, the baby would die of suffocation. Most women were terrified to put their baby inside one of these contraptions and it was my mother's job to calm them and explain that if poisonous gas was used, that was the only way the baby had a chance of survival. There were gas proof kennels for pets and one could purchase various gas masks for animals. If you had more than one dog you were told to lock them in separate rooms during a raid in case the pets panicked and grew violent.
Both my parents had to take exams on the different types of gas expected and another memory that has never left me is testing them on their knowledge of deadly gases such as phosgene, mustard gas and so on and how to detect each type of gas and its effect and treatment. Our cupboards and the spare room were full to the ceiling with A.R.P. Equipment, First Aid packs, gas-masks of various kind and buckets of sand and long-handled shovels for incendiary bombs. The telephone in our dining-room was manned day and night, mostly by paid air-raid wardens. However, we had to answer the phone if they popped out for a minute because this was the main link in case of a bomb attack.
Once when I happened to be home from school, I remember the feeling of panic that came over me when I casually answered the phone and was told "Air-Raid Warning Red." There was nothing I could do because almost immediately the air-raid sirens sounded and we heard the vibrating "thud-thud-thud" of German planes approaching. This was followed by the loud "pom-pom" of the big naval gun on the railway line near Hendon Aerodrome. Then came a shower of shrapnel all over the place like hail, breaking glass and dislodging roof tiles. After the siren sounded the "All-Clear," we used to hunt for pieces of shrapnel as souvenirs. I remember wondering what it would be like to wake up one morning and to find there was no war on and that it was all a bad dream.
Anderson Shelters were available, free to everyone with an income of less than 拢250 a year. They were dug into the ground with a corregated roof, the top was then covered with earth and mud. They were supposed to be safe for everything except a direct hit. For those who had no garden, Morrison Shelters were delivered to go inside the house. It was also called a table shelter and was like a huge steel table where you had to crawl inside and then fit steel net panels on 2 sides during an air raid. This was to take the weight of the house should it collapse on you. There were public air raid shelters in all the parks and open spaces and if you were out in the road when the sirens sounded, air raid wardens would usher you down to the nearest shelter Some office blocks and big buildings had reinforced cellars for their occupants
Our shelter at the end of the garden was about six foot square inside and made of solid reinforced concrete below ground and covered with earth where my mother grew marrows and nasturtiums My father had this specially built for me and Joyce because my parents were out on duty during the air-raids. It was warm and cosy down there, unlike the Anderson shelters supplied by the Government. There were bunks and shelves with emergency food supplies and tins of chocolate biscuits. One shelf doubled as a small table where I used to do my homework. Of course we had electric light and an electric heater and a small cooking stove where Joyce used to make a cup of tea when Mummy or Daddy popped down to check on us.
The winter of 1940 was the coldest for half a century. The Thames froze over and rationing began. A new law said that all sign posts had to be removed and Church bells were only to be rung as a sign of invasion. Strict 鈥淏lack Out鈥� had to be observed and the speed limit was 20 m.p.h. at night to prevent accidents. Traffic lights were masked to show only a small cross of colour as were car headlights that allowed only a thin slit of light. Bumpers had to be painted white and lamp posts and any obstructions had white rings painted on them.. Torches had to be beamed down and have 2 layers of tissue and you could be fined for lighting a cigarette outside at night.
Later, clothing was rationed to set workers free for war work and we were only allowed to buy one small bar of soap every 4 weeks. Our iron railings were taken away for making munitions and it was illegal to decorate cups and saucers and plates, being a waste of manufacturing time.. It also became illegal to manufacture bedspreads and table clothes. However, we accepted these economic measures with patriotic zeal for the war effort; we were far better off than Germany where among other restrictions, citizens were only allowed to have a bath on Saturday or Sunday.
After the return of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, the German daylight raids started and although we used to go down to the air raid shelter if there was time, it was not such a bad memory; not so frightening as the night raids the following winter. During the 鈥淏attle of Britain鈥� summer of 1940 I can recall poking my head out of the shelter one afternoon and watching a "dog-fight" overhead between R.A.F. fighters and German planes. They looked so small and innocent and it was amazing to think that they were trying to kill each other up there in the cloudless blue sky on a brilliant summer day.
The first large air raid was at the beginning of the school holidays and these went on all summer. I was sent to my Aunts place in St. Albans and we spent the holidays popping in and out of her garden shelter. Although the sirens used to go, St. Albans was not a target and it became rather like a game. I recall Tony finishing off the emergency rations of chocolate biscuits in the shelter. It was expected that Hitler would now invade England and men 17 to 65 were invited to join the Local Defence Volunteers and over a million responded to the call. They were called the Home Guard and later 鈥淒ad鈥檚 Army鈥�. Great concrete bollards were built across main roads as anti-tank traps with only room for a single car or truck. Gun emplacements were being built at all main junctions. The coast was covered with barbed wire and concrete tank traps to prevent the Germans from landing but in spite of all this people carried on with their jobs as usual and there was no panic. The RAF destroyed so many German aircraft with the help of Radar that by October 1940 Hitler was forced to give up the idea of invading Britain and Hitler switched to another tactic.
When the night raids started during that winter, they had a set pattern, and like everyone else we adjusted our lives and evolved a routine. Dinner had to be finished by 6pm and then we quickly changed into our "siren-suits" (All-in-one suits with a long zip and made of a soft, warm, comfortable fabric for sleeping in) and collected a few things we wanted to take with us while listening to the News. We heard how many people had been killed in the air-raids the previous night and I remember how the News broadcast was often interrupted by "Lord Haw-Haw" on behalf of Hitler. He used to jeer at the British and warn us that tonight's raid would finish us off and that we would never hear the "All- Clear", presumably because we would all be dead! With that heartening thought we would troop down to the shelter about 6.20pm, which was the time the Sirens would go. Some nights it was fairly quiet and I could only hear anti-aircraft guns firing in the distance. Other nights the German bombers were overhead with Hendon Aerodrome as their target. The big Naval gun went up and down on the railway line making a lot of noise and showering everywhere with large pieces of jagged shrapnel.
Behind our house up on a hill "Aggie" the leader searchlight would sweep the night sky looking for enemy planes. There was also a ring of barrage balloons round the aerodrome to prevent the enemy aircraft from coming too low but in spite of all this, when a German plane did get through, it dropped a stick of bombs right across the whole area. Each bomb came down with a sickening noise, a kind of scream, then a second's silence and an explosion. They usually followed one after the other in quick succession then the plane would go past and we could breathe again until the next time. In between we would listen to the wireless as it was called or Joyce and I would play a game of Monopoly, which was the latest craze. Joyce used to do embroidery with wool on canvas while I did my homework. Then we would try to get some sleep. This was a regular performance during the first London night raids.
My father would come home from his office in the City and tell us how thousands of people were swarming down the Underground to find a pitch for the night so that they could get a good night's sleep in safety. At first they camped in families all over the platforms and then the Government put up steel bunks for public use on a first come, first served basis. Anyone could go down and there was much good spirit and sing-songs. However, in suburbia we all had our own little shelters in the garden. My father used to get home about 6pm and then man Post 鈥淛.61鈥�, which was now in a small, bomb-proofed structure about 100 yards away, until midnight. After that there was a paid night-warden but during the raids my father would stay on with him until the "All-Clear" had sounded, trying to get a few hours rest here and there before he went back to the office in the morning.
Mummy was on duty during the day at H.Q. but at night she used to go round with a torch to the air-raid shelters and call out, "Are you all right down there?" Very often someone wanted help and maybe she would go back to their house and fetch something they had forgotten like a baby鈥檚 bottle or some medicine. Old people and mothers with young children were very grateful for the assurance that someone was keeping an eye on them. She wore a "Tin Hat" in case of shrapnel, as all wardens had to if they were out during a raid. They also had to carry a special issue gas-mask that would give them extra protection compared with a normal civilian gas-mask. Being near the aerodrome, which was a Bomber Command base, Hendon was always a prime target.
The house behind us which was empty at the time, had a direct hit by a small bomb but it blew most of our tiles off and all the windows were smashed. It was pouring with rain that night and the rain came in through the roof, made the bedroom ceilings bulge with water until they burst, then poured down into the rooms below. The sitting-room chandelier was like a fountain and the carpet was ankle deep under dirty water. Our front door was blown out and debris was thrown on top of the air-raid shelter. However, no one was at home or in the shelter that night. My parents were both on duty and I was at boarding school. On that occasion only one neighbour was badly injured but on another night a direct hit on a house fifty yards away killed a whole family. My father insisted that my mother go and help as the experience would be a protection to herself so he said. She saw the dead husband and wife still sitting in their arm-chairs and an adult son with his ears and thumbs blown off and another son thrown all over the wall - such was the horror of the air-raids. Blast did such peculiar things and sometimes one person would be unhurt and another unrecognisable. My mother said it was the most awful sight she had ever seen but it prepared her for anything after that.
The first planes in an air raid usually dropped fire-bombs so that the planes that followed could see where to drop their high-explosive bombs. The job of the Air Raid Wardens was to put those fires out quickly with the use of buckets of sand and long-handled shovels. In big cities like London there were 鈥淔ire-Watchers鈥� stationed on the roof tops to alert the Wardens and the Fire Stations.
In spite of the persistent night-raids, life continued more or less as usual. People still went to work on time after being up more than half the night and there was a wonderful feeling of comradeship. All windows were criss-crossed with tape to prevent splintering glass and at night there was total 鈥淏lack-out鈥� - all curtains had to have a double lining and any light at all from a cigarette- lighter or a bright torch got the response 鈥淧ut out that bloody light鈥�. Many houses were empty for most of the time, either because of evacuation, call-up or duty. Our house was temporarily repaired by the Goverment but we hardly used the upstairs now and this was the case in most places in the suburbs.
One day an R.A.F. officer called and said we would have to take in some new conscripts from the aerodrome along with every house in the area. We were allotted five very young recruits who seemed to have mountains of rucksacks and who slept exhausted all over the floor. After a few days they became more relaxed and friendly but they didn't stay long. However, we named our five budgerigars after them. Looking back on it, it amazes me that we had time for budgies! They were covered over at night and so escaped the broken glass from the conservatory where they were housed.
Everyone in the country loved Tommy Handley in the radio programme 鈥淚ts that man again鈥� or ITMA as it was called. It was a very topical programme and showed how the British Nation were responding to Hitler鈥檚 Blitz.. The other popular programme was the 鈥淏rains Trust鈥�. The Blitz went on for nine months and then there was a lull. We all remembered 10 May 1941 as the heaviest and last big bombing raid on London until 1944. England remained undefeated

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.