Commemorations

“AREA EIGHT” IN THE WAR AGAINST HITLERISM BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIVIL DEFENCE SEVICES AND A.R.P. IN STROUD AND NAILSWORTH By P.R. SYMONDS With a Preface by General Sir Hugh Elles, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.’ K.C.V.O.’ D.S.O., A Foreword by Bramwell Hudson, Esq., J.P. And 34 Illustrations

“Your path of duty has been the way to glory and amidst the glorious records of the war the story of Civil Defense will take a high place.” H.M. THE KING PUBLISHED BY THE STROUD (Urban and Rural) AND NAILSWORTH (Urban) DEFENCE COMMITTEE R.D.C. Chambers, John Street, Stroud 1945

WAR

The first week of the war saw the arrival of 1,200 evacuees from Birmingham, the opening of public air raid shelters, the sandbagging of selected public buildings, the closure of cinemas, and the black-out, while ‘most people carried respirators, and there was a general air of expectancy.’ ‘On Friday, November 10th, the first Preliminary Air Raid Warning, known as the “Yellow Warning,” was received at 11.20 a.m. Yellow Warnings were confidential warnings for A.R.P. Control, and were not for issue to the public, so that no sirens were sounded. On this occasion the warning message was passed up to a meeting of the R.D.C. Committee, that happened to be sitting, as several of the members were engaged in A.R.P. A year later, when the number of “Yellows” received amounted to an average of three a day, nobody would have even troubled to inform the Committee, but on this occasion (the first for this Area) the members picked up their respirators and left. (It is reported that the staff spent the rest of the morning gazing through windows at the sky watching for the approach of a German armada!)’