LIVING MEMORY ASSOCIATION - Homefront Recall

Air Raids and Evacuation

Black Outs

Two Boys Brigaders in 1940
The black-out was an important way of defending against air attacks. Homes, shops, cars and trains had to put up heavy curtains - sometimes up to three layers thick - or paint their windows to prevent any light escaping. Cars also had to be blacked out.

"the cars had a wee cross cut oot for the headlights ..and ye see things comin' towards ye and it wis just a cross"
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Street lights were no longer used. All this made it more difficult for German bombers to find their targets. To make sure that people were doing following the rules, Air Raid Protection (ARP) wardens patrolled the streets and could fine people for showing any light. There were also concerns that areas would become more dangerous due to the lack of street lights. However, although there was an increase in road accidents, crime rates did not increase as much as people thought they would.

"The blackout was ok in the summer but it was horrendous in the winter ...we had built up sandbags round each doorway and opening and if you didn't know where you were... I had a black eye once. I had walked right into the sandbag but we were young then."
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"The blackout itself was comical in lots of ways. Ma auntie got these wooden frames made and she got blackout material and if you came in and banged the door the blackout fell doon.and the warden would be screamin ‘Put that light out!'; Oh there were a lot of funny things as well..".
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"It was dark you know, ye had to stumble across the room and pull the curtains before you could put the light on."
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"The ARP warden ..... used tae pound round the streets. Ye'd maybe be sittin' listenin' tae a wireless and aw ye wid hear wis a whistle 'Put that light out'."
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The Home Guard

Threats from the air were not the only danger to the people of Britain . From the very beginning of the war one of the biggest fears was invasion.

"We were being upset .. it was still quite vivid and ... when war was declared we were expectin' invasion ... we were expectin' them to walk down the road with their jack boots but that didnae happen"
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In Scotland, defences were established all along the coastline - for example, there were large guns placed on Inchkeith Island in the Firth of Forth to protect Rosyth naval base. These were seen as very important as German forces occupied France, Belgium and the Netherlands from early on in the war and could have used this area as a base to invade Britain. In the event of an invasion civilians would be called upon to help defend the country and citizens joined the Local Defence Volunteers (later renamed the Home Guard) to "do their bit". The Home Guard had little equipment to fight with at the beginning of the war - some members were even forced to do their training using garden tools and chairlegs. Due to their lack of weapons, the fact that few of them had uniforms and that many were over 40 (the age limit for military service), some people made fun of the Home Guard. They began to call it "Dad's Army"

"Ah can remember the Dad's Army ... there wis an auld guy in the next flat below us and he wis like Captain Mainwaring. But they took it serious and on a Sunday morning ye used tae see them, hear the tackety boots comin' roond the corner and signalling ta one another ... Ah wish you could see it, they were on their tummy crawlin' ...Ah wis watchin' frae the windae. There wis maybe about twenty and then they wid do their drill..."
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Although people made fun of them, some historians have pointed out how important they were. For example, one historian, Peter Fleming, said that in 1940 it would have been impossible to train all the soldiers needed if they had to keep watch on Britain's 5,000 miles of coastline at the same time.

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