Using the old gimmick of putting a fake item together with an original to create some sort of provenance, one of the usual shysters on eBay is currently hawking this tat--a fake Scout ARP armband with a real, but grotty, leather scout belt. The armband has previously been for sale on the tat bazaar but buyers appear to have twigged it was a copy. Alas, a number are falling for the job lot sale.
Update: someone wasted nearly £290 on this garbage...
0 Comments
An interesting photo from Coltishall in north-east Norfolk. Possibly a stand-down photo (going by the five war service chevrons in evidence), the chap in the centre appears to have "D.A.O" on his white helmet with single black bar. He also has the three chevrons and a star which would denote a Depot Superintendent. He's with several ambulance personnel so perhaps DAO is Deputy Ambulance Officer or Depot Ambulance Officer; quite a rare helmet designation.
He and a few of the Rescue men also have a single six-pointed star on the left sleeve. I'm unaware of the meaning of this. The stars look the same size as those that would appear above rank chevrons. A local-specific award by the look. Image courtesy of John Parnell. One of the very best overviews of Air Raid Precautions and how the various organisations within Civil Defence were run can be found in Samuel Evelyn Thomas's Practical Guide for the Householder & Air-Raid Warden (first printed in 1939 by James Askew & Son). The 90-page booklet is quite detailed with several illustrations (it also re-used colour copies of the ARP cigarette cards). It is a great reference for how the Wardens' Service was set up and run. It also gives a great run-through of how the various first aid groups were set up and run in towns and rural areas.
The copy below is an original Fifth Edition (400th thousand) and goes to show how many were printed. Currently, I've seen editions with the eighth edition on the cover. Evelyn Thomas was a Group Warden from St. Albans and a prolific writer who wrote articles that appeared in many of the ARP / Civil Defence magazines of the day. He also published a guide to the Civil Defence Act of 1939, a rare booklet called the "Handy War-Time Guide", "Tactical Training in A.R.P.", as well as "Incident Cards", a training resource for incident officers. Well worth finding a copy and reproductions printed by the IWM are also available but contain only 32 pages. An interesting photo shows members of the Civil Defence Corps (CDC) parading in Lune Street, Preston wearing wartime ARP Pattern 71 tunics. They are wearing the CDC badge on their berets. They may have been previous members of the Civil Defence Services who joined the CDC.
The date given by the Preston Digital Archive is c.1947 but it is probably the early 1950s. A battledress blouse was manufactured for female volunteers in the CDC but it was often remarked on as being highly unflattering. The vast majority of photos show the battledress being worn with a skirt and occasionally slacks. Image: Flickr - Preston Digital Archive Following an air raid, casualties in bombed buildings could be trapped beneath the rubble. If they were able to make a tapping sound then the Rescue Squads could endeavour to find and extricate them. Heavy Rescue Squads would look to ensure the buildings had been rendered safe to enter (by shoring walls etc) and the Light Rescue would tunnel through to the casualties, carry them out and pass them onto the first aid posts or to a hospital.
To assist in locating buried casualties, a Sound Locating Apparatus was devised in early 1942 to assist the Rescue Squads. This consisted of a truck with a crew of three which would be called from its base located at Metropolitan Electric Supply Company in Uxbridge. Called out by a Borough’s ARP Controller, the truck would arrive at the incident and set up various listening devices at a bombed building. The operator would require all other rescue work to cease for at least 10 minutes as they listened for any noise. From records, it appears not every rescue team was happy to stop their work to allow this. The success of the Sound Locating Apparatus appears to have been quite limited. In some incidents, the locating apparatus could not be deployed for several reasons. In some cases, the Civil Defence rescue dogs had already suggested where a casualty had been buried (in one particular case, this turned out to be a buried cat). In quite a number of cases the results were negative, as no casualties were present. A Ministry of Home Security report in January 1945, commented that the Sound Locating Apparatus “…cannot be regarded as a valuable aid to rescue work.” Thanks go to Chris Ransted for the information. |
Please support this website's running costs and keep it advert free
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|