Embedded Files
Pedro Cruzado, Eva Mateo, Leli Serrano , Teresa Aragón, Laura Herrera, and Inmaculada Beltrán
BLITZ, STORY OF THE NAZI BOMBING OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
The Blitz is the name given to the bombings by the Nazi Germany that took place in the United Kingdom between 1940 and 1941 during the Second World War. These bombings of industrial targets and civilian centers began with intense attacks on London on September, 7th 1940, during what would later be known as the Battle of Britain, which would be the prelude to 76 days of air strikes in the most important cities of the United Kingdom. Between September, 7th 1940 and May, 21st 1941, sixteen British cities were attacked with at least 100 tons of explosives.
This colossal bombing caused around 43,000 deaths, and destroyed more than one million homes. Civilian casualties were the protagonists of an air strike that failed to achieve Adolf Hitler's goal of destroying the morale of civilians and British government centers to get Britain out of the war or rendered incapable of resisting an invasion.
http://www.viajeporlondres.com/londres/historia/the_blitz/the_blitz.html
https://www.muyhistoria.es/contemporanea/articulo/el-blitz-de-londres-en-google-maps
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitz
During the Blitz the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) had prominent role. They drove the air strike sirens and made suer that people were directed to shelters. The women were involved in the ARP services through the Women´s Voluntary Service (WVS). That service was of great importance in the evacuation of the cities and in the distribution of clothing and food among the population.
A.R.P WARDENS
After the First World War, military experts predicted that if there was a future war, there would be a large-scale bombing of the British civilian population. Therefore, most of the women volunteers before the war entered the civil defense or the Army Terrestrial of Women.
The main civil defense services were the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) and the Air Assault Guardians Service, created in April 1937. They were organized by the national government and delivered by the local authorities. Their objective was to protect civilians from the danger of air strikes. Therefore, public shelters had to be built for the people to be secluded during the air strikes, Initially, women mainly performed administrative work, but their roles expanded to meet the demand, and pumping crews became common.
In 1939, when the war broke out, there were more than 1.5 million women in the ARP (Precautions against air attacks), or Civil Defense, as it was renamed later.
In 1939, since there was NO bombing in London yet, the role of the ARP Guardians was to make sure there were no lights on, in other words, to enforce "the blackout." This meant making sure there were no visible lights that could be used by enemy aircraft to help locate bombing targets. The director would alert the person in charge by shouting something like "Turn off this light!" or "Cover that window!". They also helped people to go home safely.
The ARP posts were initially established in the director's house, or in a store or office. Each position was divided into sectors, with perhaps three to six guards in each sector. An ARP director was almost always local. It was essential that he or she knew their sector and the people.
During the Blitz of 1940-1, guards and other civil defence personnel proved indispensable and heroic. Every time the sirens that announced an air strike sounded, the guards helped people to go to the nearest shelter and helped to find and reunite families. Then, they toured their sector, usually in pairs, with considerable risk, and reported on the magnitude of the damage to the pump and also evaluated the local need for help from emergency services and rescue.
During air raids, ARP guards were often the first on the scene, performing first aid if there were minor victims, putting out small fires, and helping to organize the emergency response. In the picture we can see an ARP director using a gas mask as she bends down to tie the hose of her stirrup pump on a handle arranged in her ARP post.
A small percentage of the ARP guards were full-time and they were paid a salary, but most were part-time volunteers doing their ARP assignments. The part-time guards had to be on duty about three nights a week, but this increased considerably when the bombing was more intense. One out of six was a woman, and among the men there was a significant number of World War I veterans. At the beginning of the war, the ARP guards did not have uniforms, but wore their own clothes, with the addition of a steel helmet, wellington boots and a bracelet. In May 1941, full-time and part-time guards received blue twill uniforms.
The Civil Defense services, including the ARP guards, were maintained during the war. There were still hundreds of thousands of volunteers in June 1944. 1.4 million men and women served as ARP guards during World War II, altogether.
ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE
"As a nation we require voluntary service today as much as we have ever done in the past. It is a proud expression of individual duty." Lady Stella Reading
This service was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as an organization of British women to recruit women in the ARP services.
During Second World War, this service had a great importance in the evacuation of the cities and in the distribution of clothing and food among the population. WVS played a prominent role during the Blitz, which was the constant bombing of the United Kingdom, both industrial and civilian targets, by Nazi Germany.
At the time of the Blitz, the women at WVS were experts in providing food and drink throughout the day. While the ARP guards and firefighters battled the fires, women in the WVS installed mobile dinning rooms to keep them cool, placing them in serious physical danger with the collapse of the buildings, a constant threat. When the raids ended, the WVS also participated in the care of the injured and those who had lost their homes. Records indicate that the WVS helped more than 10,000 people every night during the Blitz.
As the Blitz lasted 57 nights, the WVS helped a large number of people who went into their rest centres. Some people stayed just one night, many stayed for much longer and stretched the resources of the WVS to the limit. In Barnes, a WVS member fed 1,200 bomb victims in just one day, cooking in her own kitchen.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the work done by the WVS during the bombardments: the rest centres provided shelter, food and, most importantly, sanitation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Raid_Precautions_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=15375
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Voluntary_Service
CURIOSITIES ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
'ARP Looks to You' poster
Publicity was of vital importance for recruiting women into the WVS – and a public competition was held to find the defining image for this new service. It was 19-year-old James Davies of Dagenham, a former pupil of the Westminster School of Art, who emerged victorious with this striking design and claimed the £30 prize.
ARP Women's Voluntary Services badge.
This is the first membership badge produced by the WVS. It was issued following the completion of basic training and cost each member 6d, but was used for less than three months.
What did they wear?
They wore a uniform designed by Stella Reading. It was moss green and it had a clover which earned the volunteers the name of ‘the ladies in green’.
CHARITY BICK
Charity Bick was the youngest British woman to be decorated with the George Medal in 1941 because of her heroic behaviour and determination during the air strikes.
At the age of 14, she lied about her age, claiming to be 16, to join the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) service in Maud Road, West Bromwich.
She delivered messages between ARP depots by bicycle. Her father was an ARP post warden.
During a very heavy air raid, Miss Bick played an heroic part under nerve-racking conditions. At the outset, when incendiary bombs began to fall, she assisted her father to put out one of these, in the roof of a shop, with the aid of a stirrup pump and buckets of water. The bomb proved to be out of order, but nothing prevented her from splashing the water with her hands and eventually putting out the fire. While she was trying to get out of the roof, the charred rafters gave way and she fell through to the room below and sustained minor injuries.
Miss Bick and her father then returned to the A.R.P. Post. Almost immediately high explosive bombs began to fall and a terrific explosion nearly shook them off their feet. They discovered that a bomb had destroyed two opposite houses and another one nearby. The Wardens attached to the Post were all on duty, so she borrowed a bicycle and rushed out to take a message to the Control Room amidst shrapnel, from guns and falling bombs. She made repeated attempts to get through and several times had to stop and fall for safety. Covered with dirt and grime, she eventually delivered the message.
She made three journeys from her position to the Control Room, a distance of approximately one and a quarter miles during the raid and made further journeys afterwards.
Miss Bick, by acting as a means of communication between the Wardens' Post, to which she was attached, and the Control Room, did very valuable work and released other Wardens for duty. She displayed outstanding courage and coolness in very hard circumstances.
Aged 16, she was the youngest person ever to receive the GM. The medal was presented to her by King George VI in a ceremony on 10 September 1941. She also received the Defence Medal and War Medal at the end of the war.
SONIA STRAW
Nineteen-year-old Sonia Vera Carlyle Straw, an air raid warden at Caterham, was awarded the George Medal (GM) during a raid in which she attended a number of badly injured women and children and treated several people for shock. She carried on without assistance all throughout the raid.
FORUM
FORUM
You can write your comments on the wall. Please make reference to the book whenever you can.
Google Sites
Report abuse