NEATH'S DARK SKIES

Philip John

Following WWI the British government feared that any future war would involve heavy aerial bombing of civilian areas and so in 1935, as a result of the disorder unfolding in Europe, the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, published a circular entitled Air Raid Precautions (ARP), intended for local authorities to make plans to protect their people in the event of a war.  Some towns responded by arranging the building of public air raid shelters.  However, some local authorities ignored the circular with the result that in April 1937 the government decided to create the Air Raid Wardens Service, followed by the Air Raid Precautions Act passed in December 1937.  The Act required local authorities to ready themselves in case of air attack by taking precautions to protect persons and property from injury or damage in the event of hostile attack from the air.  The Air Raid Precautions Department, which was established by the Home Office in 1935, morphed into an umbrella body called the Civil Defence Service (CD) in 1941. The CD Service included the ARP Wardens Service, firemen, who were initially the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS), fire watchers (later the Fire Guard), decontamination squads, rescue squads, first aid posts and stretcher parties.  The role of ARP was open to both men and women, but only men could serve in the services known as decontamination (teams that dealt with chemical and gas bombs), heavy and light rescue squads and demolition teams.

            Air Raid Precautions (ARP) training was introduced in February 1937, but no uniforms were issued to the newly-trained air raid wardens; they wore their civilian clothes.  Instead of a uniform they received a hallmarked silver ARP lapel badge and whilst on duty they also wore a helmet (usually, but not always, a black helmet with a white 'W') and an armband.  The design of this was unregulated and so local authorities created whatever designs they wanted, often with the local authority name printed on them.  It was not until the start of WWII that uniforms slowly filtered through to wardens and associated services – the first being the all-in-one combination suit/overalls made of bluette.  Lady Wardens were issued with the ARP Pattern 42 coat made of a similar dark blue 'bluette' denim, the coat was double-breasted, mid-calf length with a notched open collar – most lady wardens opted to wear the black battle dress and trousers (or something as near as possible).  Each ARP Warden carried a police whistle and a torch, a canvas shoulder bag that held a first aid kit and their own gas mask.

Depending on the role of the person the helmet would be marked with a letter or letters to easily allow others to ascertain their role at an incident.

• W for wardens (some warden/fire guards had W/FG). Rank within the warden service was denoted by a white helmet and black bands.
• R for rescue services (later HR and LR were used for heavy and light rescue parties)
• FAP for first aid parties
• SP for stretcher parties (to carry injured from incidents)
• A for ambulance drivers
• M for messenger/runner

One of the most visible forms of ARP was the Air Raid Warden. These wardens became the first link in a chain of ARP bodies that would include firefighters, rescue and first aid parties, ambulance crews and medics.  The ratio of ARP Wardens varied from city to city, borough to borough, but for most the standard was ten wardens' posts to the square mile.  By May 1939 Neath Borough (which included Briton Ferry) had recruited 372 Air Raid Wardens; to meet the estimated number of wardens required for the Borough another 23 volunteers were needed.[1  Most Air Raid Wardens were part-timers who came on duty after they finished their day's work and one in six was a woman.[2]  Part-time wardens were expected to report in about three nights a week, while duty hours for paid wardens were 48 hours for women and 72 hours for men.[3]  Neath Borough initially had 56 paid Wardens, but in December 1939 this number was reduced to 26 and as a result the number of Wardens’ Posts was initially halved to 13.

In Neath Borough, wardens’ posts were eventually established at:

4. A. 1              Headquarters, Town Hall

4. A. 2              Lletty Nedd

4. A. 3              The Quay

4. A. 4              Gnoll Schools [sic]

4. A. 5              Wind Street

4. A. 6              Empire Cinema

4. B. 1              Pendrill Road

4. B. 2              Polling Booth, Payne Street

4. B. 3              Brynhyfryd (Busmen’s Club)

4. B. 4              Wheatley Road

4. C. 1              Farm Road

4. C. 2              Regent Street

4. C. 3              Brynhyfred Schools

4. C. 4              Vernon Place

The warden’s post might be a shop, a civic hall or a basement, or even the front room of one of the warden’s home.  The district to be patrolled would be divided into sectors with perhaps three to six wardens controlled by a senior warden in each sector.  An Air Raid Warden was appointed to every urban street and it was considered essential that a warden knew his or her sector that was often called their 'patch'.  If a bomb were to fall in a sector, a warden was often the first on the scene — long before the fire brigade, police, or ambulances arrived.  A good warden would know the habits of the people who lived in their sector so that when a bomb fell the emergency services could be directed at once to where survivors might be buried.  In the event of a Warden’s Post receiving an Air Raid Message – Yellow, wardens would gather at their posts (the public was not informed).  An Air Raid Warning – Red, signalled an air raid was imminent with a warning being given by a warbling siren, the note of which changed every few seconds. Wardens immediately went to their sectors blowing short blasts on their whistles.  The Air Raid Message – White, signalled the 'All Clear', the public would be informed by sounding the 'All Clear' sirens.

On 1^st September 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, Britain was 'blacked out'.  Everyone had to cover their windows and doors at night (before sunset) with heavy blackout curtains, cardboard or paint.  The warden’s main task was to check everyone’s 'blackout'.  It was illegal to show any light after dark, so if a warden saw a chink of light he or she would shout out "put that light out!" or "cover that window!".  If necessary, the warden would knock on doors to reinforce the message.  In addition to enforcing the night time 'blackout' Air Raid Wardens had a range of duties, such as advising local people on air raid precautions and during an air raid they would patrol the streets all night to watch for dropped incendiary bombs starting house fires whilst the householders were hiding away in their shelters.  Householders were expected to leave their front and back doors unlocked at night so that if the house was hit by a bomb the rescue squad could get in and deal with casualties.  It was human nature for some people to take the opportunity to rob their neighbours and so part of a warden’s duty was to keep a watchful eye out for suspicious activity.

Air Raid Wardens were responsible for monitoring and reporting bomb damage and they also dealt with the after­math of an air raid, mainly unexploded bombs and those bombs deliberately designed to explode some time after impact – bombs with a time delayed fuse.  In such cases the wardens would clear a street of people and wait for the army bomb disposal team.  Air Raid Wardens would assist by co-ordinating the response of other CD services in clearing bombed buildings and dealing with any casualties and sadly the recovery of the dead.

Following the declaration of war on Germany, on 3^rd September 1939, Germany did not immediately attack British cities by air as was expected.  In fact, there followed a period that was known on the Home Front as the phoney war – in contrast with the blitzkrieg (lightning war) tactics there was little activity in the skies over Britain. This period came to an end with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in May 1940 and shortly after bombs were being dropped on Neath and its districts. The accounts of enemy bombing are recorded in the Neath ARP control centre log books 1940 to 1944 held at the Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff.  There are too many air raids recorded in the log books to relate here, the following stories illustrate the dangers faced by the civilian population, the Civil Defence Service and the military.

Eight bombs were dropped on the Old Road, Briton Ferry, on 13^th August 1940 and although most fell on open ground one bomb landed in the front garden of No. 248 Old Road.  This bomb killed three people, Mary Curtis, her 34 year old son Bert and Harold Cockwell who was an ARP Warden.  Three other members of the Curtis family were seriously injured and required hospital treatment; Mary’s seven year old grandson was operated on, by an American neuro-surgeon, at the American Red Cross Hospital in Birmingham.  Two ARP Wardens were also injured and hospitalised and another two adult males were slightly injured.[4]