'Within the Island Fortress - Insignia and Uniforms of the Home Front in Britain 1939 - 1945' by Jon Mills. This was originally a 16-page special published for the Military Heraldry Society that has now been republished for everyone to enjoy.
It contains full-colour images and research covering many home front organisations including ARP, auxiliary units, FANY, HG, WVS, WLA, youth organisations, fire services and nursing etc. Just £10 including shipping in the UK from Home Front Collection.
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I recently came across this book called Incident 48 - Raid on a South Coast Town 1943 by Angela Beleznay. The book is dedicated to a single air raid on the town of Bournemouth on 23 May 1943. It was the 48th raid recorded by the local Civil Defence controller on the town and it lasted barely a single minute, and it was the worst incident during the war in Bournemouth.
The author details the events before and after the tip-and-run raid by the Luftwaffe flying Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers. The air raid caused the death of 77 people with hundreds wounded. A large number of buildings were destroyed or badly damaged. The book is incredibly well-researched. I don't think I've read a more detailed account of a single raid and it's well worth getting hold of a copy. Eric Caxton was a pre-war highways engineer who became involved with civil defence planning run by Surrey County Council. Early in the war he helped set up the Rescue School at Redhill.
In 1942 Caxton set up the Casualties Union and introduced into civil defence training the idea of casualty simulation whereby instead of extricating dummies from bombed buildings during training, real people were used that had been made-up to look injured. The Casualties Union continues to this day. Caxton wrote a number of guides, such as "Practical Rescue Training" handbook shown below, as well as a autobiography entitled "More Ways Than One of Fighting a War". The below is currently for sale on eBay for £40. In 1945 Harrap & Co. Ltd. published Stephen Spender's book "Citizens in War - and After". The book detailed the activities of a wide range of Civil Defence Services during the war years. The book also contained a forward by the Home Secretary / Minster of Home Security Herbert Morrison, as well as 48 colour photographs by John Hinde, a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and pioneer of British colour photography (he later became renown for his colour postcards that sold in the millions). There are some excellent studies of individuals and interesting shots of wardens and Incident Officers. One particular shot of a Control Centre in 1944 shows the main plotting board and map of the area being covered. A selection of these colour photos by John Hinde can be viewed on the Science & Society Picture Library. Published in March 1941, John Strachy's book entitled "Post D - Some experiences of an Air-Raid Warden" details his time as a warden in London. It's well worth reading Strachy's bio on Wikipedia - an MP in 1929, he sided breifly with Oswald Mosely, dabbled with communism, was in the RAF in WW2 and post war became Minister of Food in Atlee's Labour government.
It's quite a rare tome and prices are usually up over £40 and first impressions are much more. This copy is on a German website for just €9 put postage is another €18 on top. However, it looks to be a pretty sound copy for just £23 delivered. |
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