TODAY'S Memories builds on recent articles about the Home Guard, and strays into the role of the ARP wardens during the Second World War. I was looking on the Echo's archive for further information about the ARP locally and came across this article from 1989 which I guess was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of war. I don't know who wrote it, but it makes fascinating reading. The salutory part of it is that I guess that the 70-somethings that are quoted are, 23 years later, unlikely to still be with us:

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Preparing for the bombs to fall

The Northern Echo 31/08/1989

 

THE arrival of gas masks, air raid shelters and civil defence excercises on the streets of the North-East woke people up to the real meaning of war.

 

After Hitler overran Austria in March 1938, national recruiting for the ARP (Air Raid Precautions service) began in earnest. At first, many refused to take it seriously. The Northern Echo published repeated appeals, urging people to come forward in towns where there were not enough volunteers.

And newsreels of German and Italian bombers in Spain were regularly screened in cinemas, in an attempt to wake the public up to the dangers ahead. It was Germany's threat to Czechoslovakia that spurred widespread and immediate action. More than 38 million gas masks were assembled and distributed throughout the country.

Soon clergymen in the North-East were appealing for volunteers from the pulpits and mayors and councillors used every public opportunity to urge people to come forward. Patriotic citizens queued up to become air raid wardens, auxiliary firemen, special constables, ambulance drivers and communications workers.

Volunteers were trained in a wide range of areas, including how to identify poison gas, organise shelters, and administer first aid.

Ethel Hand was 18-years-old and trained to be an ARP telephone reporter in Bishop Auckland, based in a report centre underneath the Town Hall which was kitted out with telephones and large maps. Her job was to take down details of where bombs had dropped, and what emergency services were needed, using information air raid wardens gathered from their posts.

Ethel also took part in mock rescues and other emergency rehearsals which were soon being carried out with a great air of seriousness.

"As I could not run with my tin hat on I used to carry it in my hand until a policeman on duty told me off," she said.

Government leaflets on The Protection Of Your Home Against Air Raids, Your Gas Mask and Masking Your Windows were speedily being delivered to every household. 

In July 1939 a new Civil Defence Act meant that large companies had to organise ARP training and services and provide shelters. Councils were also given wider powers to build shelters and prepare for evacuation and fire-fighting.

One North-East water-works chargehand, James Penrose, remembers: "For some months beforehand we were being trained for the eventualities of war and its effects on the civilian population. We attended lectures and courses and carried out excercises of mock air raids and gas attacks with simulated bomb craters, wearing anti-gas waterproofs and heavy duty gas masks."

Most people were already making their own preparations for war. Householders taped up their windows and, while Anderson shelters were supplied free to manual workers in danger areas, others built their own.

Mr Penrose, now 76, of Richmond, said: "Considering the short time we had, the Civil Defence did wonders, one being the organising and building of street and house shelters. The urgency of it all and the effort was something to see, everybody doing their bit, pulling their weight working long days and nights as if to beat an unknown deadline."

Celia Truran returned to Middlesbrough from London just before the war: "Air raid shelters were sprouting up everywhere. Anderson shelters in the gardens, pavements near certain shops in Middlesbrough were dug up and underground shelters were made."

Another woman living next to part of the main Leeds to York railway line remembers : "The tunnel was ideal for an air raid shelter. The men bricked both ends leaving doorways which were covered with blankets By now, everyone was carrying gas masks. Cinemas, theatres and even employers turned people away from their premises if they did not have their masks. Everywhere was on the alert and war rumours were rife. One Yorkshire milkman was jailed for a month for saying people had been killed in an air raid when there had not been any raids at all."

ivil defence personnel were eventually formally mobilised on Friday, September 1. The part-time volunteers were now full-time professionals. And on the day war was declared the ARP, after long months of preparation, came into its own.

But there were some mad panics when a few members forgot their training in the excitement. One Darlington woman remembers: "An air raid warden hung out of his bedroom window, tin hat on, blowing his whistle like mad. We were terrified and sat there speechless waiting for the bombs to drop."

Ethel Hand's reaction was: "I was petrified at the thought of bombs raining down on Bishop Auckland and how I would be calm enough to do all the things I had learnt about Air Raid Precautions."

One young boy in Washington village watched the ARP wardens and local fire service at wartime emergency service drill: "Everyone realised that day that they had a responsibility."