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This guide was issued to almost every household in the country in the weeks following the Munich Crisis in September 1938. |
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The booklet was a basic guide to the procedures to be followed in the event of air attack. The autumn of 1938 saw mass hysteria and panic across Britain because people believed that the Germans were about to attack Britain with massive fleets of aircraft which would destroy towns and cities. In an attempt to settle the panic, the government issued the booklet to prove that civil defence and air raid precautions were in place. The booklet has an interesting place in history. The British government and people quickly made themselves a laughing stock across Europe as slit trenches were dug in public parks and gas masks were handed out to people in London and other large cities. The panic was noted with great interest in Germany and Hitler was advised to make more of the Luftwaffe's 'terror bombing' capabilities in any future negotiations or diplomacy. The senior planners of the Luftwaffe believed that the British population was easily scared into submission and lacked the moral fibre for a conflict. The irony of this view is that the British government believed precisely the same thing of the German population. There is also a rather cynical background to this booklet. By the time of its release in the autumn of 1938, senior British government figures at the Cabinet Office, Air Ministry and in the RAF were convinced that civil defence measures were unlikely to play much of a part in reducing civilian casualties. Whilst the British were digging slit trenches and issuing booklets, the Germans were building massive concrete bunkers, devising a national fire and emergency service and preparing the cities of the Reich to cope with air attack. For reasons of space we've only included the first few pages here. Next pagesSwansea History Web subscription details are here... |
