EVERY household in France is to be given a ‘survival manual’ by the government amid growing concern over Europe’s security situation. The 20-page booklet will contain advice on preparing for war, nuclear threats and natural disasters.
It recommends citizens put together an emergency package including a radio with rechargeable batteries, prescription medication, a first aid kit, basic tools, tins of food, warm clothing, a pocket torch and batteries, phone charger, six litres of bottled water per person, spare spectacles, spare house keys and car keys, and photocopies of essential documents.
Such a list doesn’t sound very dramatic – it’s almost the sort you might compile for a weekend’s camping. By contrast, when Britain was in peril as the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the survival kit was rather more urgent and down to earth. Essential items might include a stirrup pump, a tin of anti-gas ointment, a bucket or two of water, plus a few scoops of sand. A knowledge of dismantling vehicle engines would also be useful. Oh, and a piece of India rubber and a ball of cotton wool.
In July 1939, as war looked inevitable, the Government issued a leaflet entitled Some Things You Should Know if War Should Come. It told the population how to use gas masks and fit blackout blinds, and outlined plans for rationing and evacuation. A year later, as the Germans stood just 21 miles away across the Channel after the Fall of France, another leaflet was sent out with a starker title: If the Invader Comes.
Its main message was that in the event of German airborne or seaborne landings, people should stay put. The memory of the roads of Belgium and France being choked by refugees was fresh in the minds of military planners. Britons were urged to ‘use common sense’ – remain at home, don’t listen to rumours and report anything suspicious.
‘Remember that if parachutists come down near your home, they will not be feeling at all brave. They will not know where they are, they will have no food, they will not know where their companions are. They will want you to give them food, means of transport and maps. They will want you to tell them where they have landed, where their comrades are, and where our own soldiers are.’
This prompted the most vital instruction: Do not give the Germans anything. Hide food, bicycles and maps. ‘Remember that transport and petrol will be the invader’s main difficulties.’ Disable lorries, cars and motorbikes (this would be done by emptying the petrol tank, removing the plug leads, distributor and carburettor and hiding them). ‘Think before you act, but think always of your country before yourself.’
In May 1941, the war was still going badly for Britain and a new leaflet, entitled Beating the Invader, was issued, with a message from Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He said: ‘If invasion comes, everyone – young or old, men and women – will be eager to play their part worthily.’
However, his usual stirring rhetoric was disappointingly absent and the advice was basically unchanged. If fighting breaks out near your home, you should get into the safest place you can and stay there until the battle is over. If you can have a trench ready in your garden or field, so much the better. ‘For all of you then, the order and the duty will be Stand Firm,’ Churchill wrote. And in areas where there was no fighting, ‘the second great order and duty will be Carry On.’
The leaflet posed the question: Should I defend myself against the enemy? The answer was: ‘The enemy is not likely to turn aside to attack separate houses. If small parties are going about threatening persons and property in an area not under enemy control and come your way, you have the right of every man and woman to do what you can to protect yourself, your family and your home.’
This was rather surprising advice, because it was well known by then that the Germans would take savage reprisals if any civilians tried to impede them.
The Blitz, when the Luftwaffe rained down high explosive and incendiary bombs on Britain’s towns and cities, was anticipated in a Civil Defence leaflet. What could civilians do? They were told: ‘Water is the best means of putting out a fire started by an incendiary bomb. Have some buckets ready. But if you throw a bucket of water on a burning incendiary bomb, it will explode and throw burning fragments in all directions and you may do more harm than good. If, however, the water can be applied in the form of a fine spray, it will cause the bomb to burn away quickly and will generally be possible to get it under control. For this purpose, the stirrup handpump, with a special nozzle producing spray or jet, is the best appliance.
‘At first, you should direct the water on and round the fire, rather than on the bomb. This will prevent the fire spreading and will also make it easier to approach the bomb. If you have no stirrup handpump available, sand could be used to cover the bomb. This will not extinguish it, but you should be able to scoop up the remains of the bomb, drop them into a bucket containing about four inches of sand, and remove the bucket to a safe place.’
But what about when high explosive bombs were falling? First, you should find any shelter you could. ‘Always have cotton wool in your bag or in a small tin. Ram this thickly in your ears after you are in shelter. Keep your mouth open. Chew sweets or gum or have a small square of India rubber handy to prevent the jaws closing. The precaution will prevent concussion.
‘Do not lean against walls. Ground vibrations of bombs exploding 200 yards away can transmit shock waves powerful enough to stun or even kill you. If caught in the open and unable to reach shelter, lie down but keep head and shoulders off the ground. Unless you remember this, concussion may choke you.’
The nightmare of a gas attack was also dealt with in a leaflet. It was feared the Germans might use two types of blister gas – mustard gas, as was deployed in the trenches during the Great War, and Lewisite, a blistering agent containing arsenic.
In 1942 a leaflet advised that you carry tins of Anti-Gas Ointment No2 or bleach cream (another form of anti-gas ointment) in your gas mask case. If contaminated, you should dab on the ointment, not wipe it across the wound, or you might spread the contamination. Then you should urgently try to have a bath, even if it meant knocking on the door of the nearest house and begging them to get the taps running. ‘If a bath is not available, a shower will serve – either a properly fitted one, or a makeshift affair made with a rose of a watering can or a bucket with holes in the bottom. Failing a bath or shower, ‘sluicing down’ from a bucket of warm water was recommended.
There’s also a reminder in the leaflet that Britain back then was definitely no place for snowflakes – whether facing German invaders, firebombs or poison gas, you just gritted your teeth and got on with it. Readers were rather tetchily told in capital letters: ‘THE NATION CAN’T AFFORD TO HAVE MEN AND WOMEN OFF WORK FOR EVEN A SHORT TIME BECAUSE OF GAS BURNS.’
