Book Review - Crime in the Second World War: Spives, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse

Think of the British 'Home Front' during the Second World War and the inevitable image is that of a community spirit not equalled before or since, the British people at their absolute best with everybody striving for a common cause and bravely overcoming all of the obstacles and setbacks placed in their way, whether they be the effects of German bombs, rationing and shortages or worse. By and large, this picture is an accurate one and the majority of people did at least try to carry on as normally as possible. As always though, there was a darker side to the Home Front and although frequently overlooked by historians, there was a dramatic fifty seven percent increase in crime during the wartime years. Some of the perpetrators were seasoned criminals and low life, taking the opportunities presented to them by the blackout and the Blitz, the lack of Police resources and an influx of new overseas customers to exploit, whilst others were new at the game and had a hitherto untarnished reputation but were perhaps tempted off the straight and narrow by hardship or by the wartime conditions imposed upon them. Some of these latter 'criminals' probably didn't even think of themselves as such and once peace returned, resumed their normal law-abiding lives.

In her latest book Crime in the Second World War, historian and author Penny Legg examines crime and criminals as well as the differing types of illegal behaviour in Britain during the Second World War. The book, which is subtitled Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse begins with a look at an aspect of wartime criminality frequently overlooked by historians of the Blitz. Looting was quite widespread, whether it was stealing property from bombed out houses, theft from gas and electricity meters or removing items from bomb damaged businesses. Some of the perpetrators were opportunist thieves, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, whilst others were people who should have known better, such as ARP Wardens or members of the Fire Services, who abused the trust placed in them by the authorities that had appointed them. As the author explains, the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act of 1940 were amended in October of that year to take the crime of looting into account and in theory at least, permitted looters to be punished by death, although this particular sentence was never carried out. We read of a one unfortunate lady in Camberwell who was bombed out of her house during the Blitz and having stayed with friends until her house was made habitable again, then discovered that a neighbour had stolen her piano and a sewing machine. Another householder, this time in Bristol stole £3 7 shillings from her next door neighbour. On this occasion, the thief was sentenced to twenty eight days in prison. A notorious Blitz incident in Central London was the bombing of the so-called 'Bomb Proof' Cafe de Paris in Piccadilly in March 1941. This seemed to bring out the absolute worst in some people, as it was reported that looters cut off the fingers of some of the victims in order to remove rings and other jewellery. Such looters were known as 'Bomb Chasers' - people who swooped as soon as a likely target was bombed and who took advantage of the blackout and the general confusion following a major incident in order to obtain the rich pickings on offer in a wealthy part of London.

In the following chapter, we read of the Black Market and the ways and means used to get around the rationing of food, petrol and clothing in wartime Britain. When one thinks of the Black Market, initial thoughts sometimes stray to Joe Walker, the lovable 'spiv' in the television comedy Dad's Army, always able to procure and supply just about anything for a price. Penny explains that before the war, Britain imported fifty five million tonnes of foodstuffs yearly from around the world, mainly by sea. With the coming of war, much of this was curtailed, either due to the diversion of shipping into transportation of war materials or later, due to the effects of the U-Boat campaigns against British merchant shipping. Rationing was introduced in early 1940 and whilst it was a system designed to ensure that everyone got a fair share of what was available, the reality of the situation meant that almost everybody tried to ensure that they received a little extra food along the way. We learn of how Black Marketeers obtained their wares; sometimes this was achieved by looting bombed out warehouses and shops, sometimes goods were stolen from the docks - often with dishonest dock workers complicit in the operation. Sometimes, livestock was stolen from farms and we read of how Kentish farmers were reported in April 1941 as having to patrol their fields armed with shotguns in order to deter thieves stealing sheep from fields. The Home Guard were also employed to keep an eye open for the so-called 'Butcher Gangs' of livestock thieves. Petrol theft was also a problem, as was the theft of petrol coupons, which were supposed to be the legal method of obtaining fuel for the very few private cars remaining on the roads during the war. The theft of food and clothing coupons was also a problem and it was also an offence to sell ones own legally obtained coupons to others. Sometimes, shopkeepers were involved and it was during this time, that the phrase 'Under the Counter' became a part of the language. An unscrupulous shopkeeper could be discreetly given a list of required items by a known and trusted customer and would usually find a way to produce the goods. Such shopkeepers would never serve strangers in this way for fear of the stranger being an undercover Police Officer. Organised criminal gangs were invariably involved in the Black Market, whether as part of the initial theft of goods, or in the supply of them to the public or to smaller operators.

We then move on to crimes committed in the blackout. Designed to hinder enemy aircraft in identifying targets on the ground, the blackout was also a boon to criminals, as it presented a curtain of gloom in which they could continue their activities. Breaking the blackout was a serious offence in it's own right and whilst some early offenders were simply absent-minded in not covering windows or by showing lights, some people clearly couldn't be bothered and the usual penalty for showing a light was a fine of £5, no mean sum in 1940. By the end of the war, there had been 114,000 prosecutions for blackout violations. As mentioned earlier, the blackout itself presented ample opportunities for offenders, ranging from theft of luggage from blacked-out trains to more serious offences such as prostitution and murder. The darkened streets of major cities presented an ideal opportunity for street walkers and pimps and in London, the darkened parks were a favourite haunt of prostitutes and the influx of servicemen, particularly the Americans who generally had more money to spend, ensured that there was no shortage of customers. Unfortunately, whilst many prostitutes did well out of the war, there were those who were unlucky enough to encounter the 'mad or the bad' as the author describes them. Such an individual was Gordon Cummins, a Royal Air Force pilot cadet who became known as 'The Blackout Ripper' who was eventually convicted of murdering four women and attempting to murder two others in 1942. It was during one of the attempted murders, when Cummins was disturbed by a delivery boy whilst attacking his victim, that he fled the scene and left behind his gas mask, which was stamped with his RAF service number. The first victim had been murdered in an air raid shelter and apart from the incriminating evidence of the service number, the gas mask also contained grit from this shelter. Cummins was also left handed and forensic evidence from wounds on the victims had determined that the attacker was also left handed. This, aided by other solid police work by Chief Inspector Ted Greeno, ensured that a solid case against Cummins was built up and when he came to trial at the Old Bailey on 28 April 1942, it took the jury just thirty five minutes to find him guilty of murder. He was duly executed at Wandsworth Prison on 25 June 1942.

Penny Legg tells us that the murder rate went up by twenty two percent in the period from 1941-45. Some of these crimes were premeditated, such as that described above, whilst others such as the death of Royal Navy Captain Ralph Douglas Binney CBE, were a result of crimes that went wrong. I wrote about this incident in one of the very first pieces to appear in this blog in June 2010, updated in February 2015 and so will not repeat the story in full again, suffice to say that the Captain intervened in a raid on a Jeweller's shop and would today have no doubt been described as a 'Have a go Hero' in the media. Unfortunately, he was run over and killed by the getaway vehicle and following a huge manhunt, Thomas Jenkins and Ronald Hedley were swiftly arrested. Hedley was identified as the driver of the getaway car but whilst having  been convicted of murder and sentenced to death, he was reprieved just two days before sentence was due to be carried out on 28 April 1945. He was sentenced to life imprisonment instead but only served nine years and was released in 1954. Many people were angered by this seemingly soft treatment of a murderer and claimed that it was a major factor in the rise of armed gangs after the war.

We also learn in this book of the 'Babes in the Wood' murders as well as John George Haigh, the 'Acid Bath Murderer' and also John Christie, who whilst not convicted until after the war, committed some of his murders at 10 Rillington Place during the war whilst employed as a Special Constable. Whilst some of these cases are well known, the author gives many insights into the circumstances of the crimes and explains how in the case of Christie, an innocent man also went to the gallows as a consequence of his actions.

Moving away from murders, we next take a look at some other crimes such as Fraud, Theft, Bootlegging and Treason amongst others. Examples of fraud included bogus or exaggerated claims under the War Damage Compensation Act - this was effectively simple insurance fraud and was very hard, if not impossible to check upon. People submitted multiple claims for loss or damage, or sometimes claimed for damage that had never occurred. People learnt how to play the system and a lack of enforcement staff ensured that this particular avenue of criminal behaviour was not closed until after the war when more personnel became available. Bootlegging, or illegally supplying alcohol was rife. Sometimes, this was simply stolen booze from bombed out houses, pubs or warehouses or which was intercepted by criminals whilst it was in transit but more often than not was illegally produced alcohol made from wood spirit, meths or worse, which could lead to illness and in the worst cases, permanent blindness of those unfortunate enough to drink it.

Treason or espionage was less frequent but there were instances of this occurring and we read of the bungled attempts of George Johnson Armstrong, a 39 year old marine engineer to sell shipping information to the German Consul in Boston, Massachusetts in November 1940 whilst he was visiting the USA on business. Armstrong was a known Nazi sympathiser who made little secret of his views. Unknown to him, he was already on a 'watch list' and his letter to the Consul was intercepted by the American authorities and duly reported to the British. Upon his arrival back in Britain, he was immediately arrested and charged under the Treachery Act. He was tried 'in camera' on 8 May 1941 and was executed at Wandsworth Prison on 9 July 1941, having failed in his appeal. We also learn of Charles Amery, who was one of the few people to join the British Free Corps, a unit of the Waffen SS and who actively toured POW Camps looking to recruit British and Dominion Prisoners of War into changing sides.  Amery was the son of the MP Leo Amery and was arrested in Italy in April 1945. At his subsequent trial in November 1945, Amery who was a committed Fascist, pleaded guilty to all eight counts of treason that he had been charged with and was hanged at Wandsworth Prison in December 1945. We also hear of the story of William Joyce, aka Lord Haw-Haw, another committed Fascist whose broadcasts from Nazi Germany achieved notoriety during the war but in reality, were largely treated with derision by the majority of people in this country, who listened illegally to his broadcasts. As has often been pointed out by other authors, the legality of his arrest and subsequent execution is somewhat questionable as Joyce, an Irish-American who had a British passport on account of having a British mother, was captured near the German border with Denmark by the British in May 1945. He was charged with treason against Great Britain between 3 September 1939 and 2 July 1940, which was the date his British passport had expired. He therefore had ceased to be a British citizen from that date and had already taken up German citizenship. However, neither the Americans or the Irish claimed Joyce after the war and the prevailing mood in the UK in 1945 was unsympathetic towards him and he too was hanged at Wandsworth Prison, in his case on 3 January 1946.

We also learn of Helen Duncan, the last person prosecuted in this country for witchcraft, as well as crimes committed by overseas servicemen such as rapes, riots and desertion.

This is a nicely written, well illustrated and attractively presented book which covers an important and often overlooked aspect of the Home Front during the wartime years and which should appeal to both the general reader as well as those with a more specialised interest in crime or the history of the Second World War - I highly recommend it to you.

Crime in the Second World War: Spivs, Scoundrels, Rogues and Worse by Penny Legg is published by Sabrestorm on 28 April 2017 and is priced at £19.99

ISBN 9781781220092

Ghosts of Wartime London

Shrapnel damage in London Street, Paddington

From time to time in the past, I have published various photographs showing some of what clues remain to be seen in London of it's wartime past; the last of these collections appeared in August 2013 so with the start of our regular scheduled walking season just around the corner, it is probably time for some more. Unless stated otherwise, all of the photos shown in the article were taken by the author and may not be reproduced without my express written permission.

Honourable Scars in London Street

Shrapnel scars can be seen all over London, sometimes in some unlikely and out of the way places and an instance of this can be found in London Street, Paddington, alongside the railway station. I haven't had the chance to examine the incident log for the locality as yet but the area was heavily bombed during the First Blitz of 1940/41, so these pockmarks almost certainly date from this period. 

In nearby Sussex Gardens, we can see another reminder of the London Blitz, this time at the Parish Church of St James's, the crypt of which, in common with many churches in the capital, was used as an air raid shelter, in this case one capable of accommodating some two hundred people. The church also housed an Air Raid Wardens' Post and in October 1940, was severely damaged by a Parachute Mine which fell in nearby Barrie Street. The top sixty feet of the spire was destroyed and many of the stained glass windows were damaged or destroyed. Notwithstanding all of this damage, the church never closed, either as a place of worship or as a shelter from Hitler's bombs.

The replacement Baptistry Window includes a panel that features ARP Wardens and searchlights panning the London sky in recognition of the church's role during the Blitz.

Detail from the Baptistry Window at St James's Sussex Gardens

Another reminder of the Blitz located at a church is located at Christ Church in Blackfriars Road and takes the form of a cross inset into the lawn at the rear of the church. The helpful explanatory plaque tells us that on the night of 16th/17th April 1941, the church was struck by incendiary bombs and in the ensuing fires, the blazing cross atop the spire fell onto the grass and reputedly etched the shape of the crucifix into the lawn, where it is now marked by white paving slabs; a simple but effective memorial to the second heaviest raid of the Blitz, which became known to Londoners simply as "The Wednesday."

The mark made by the burning cross at Christ Church, Blackfriars Road

During the Blackout, all manner of street furniture including kerb stones, lamp standards, bollards and even trees were painted with black and white stripes so as to provide a measure of a visual aid during the blackout. Surviving examples of these are now extremely rare but some can still be seen at the old Woolwich Arsenal site in southeast London on the steps of one of the surviving buildings.

White painted "Blackout" steps at Woolwich Arsenal

In my previous articles on surviving relics of wartime London, quite a few shelters have been mentioned but one that didn't get published last time around is this shelter, located at West Kensington Underground Station. This station is located on the District Line and as many Londoners will know, this is one of the earlier parts of the system, constructed using the 'Cut and Cover' system of tunnelling, which leaves the lines relatively close to the surface and therefore not suitable like the deep level 'tubes' for use as Air Raid Shelters. Indeed, West Kensington Station is actually on the surface, so the shelter at this station had to be purpose built. This shelter is not visible to the public and can only be viewed by appointment, so I was extremely lucky to take this shot a number of years ago. 

Entrance to the shelter at West Kensington Station

A more unusual reminder of wartime London can be found at the erstwhile Blewcoat School in Caxton Street, Westminster. Opened as a school in 1709, the building remained in this use until 1920, when it was taken over by the National Trust and used by them until quite recently as a gift shop. Now in use as a wedding shop, during the wartime years, the building saw somewhat more mundane use as a warehouse and was latterly used by the US Army for storing field equipment. Like all military establishment, however lowly, sentries were posted and an indication of the levels of boredom encountered whilst guarding a warehouse can be seen today in the shape of bayonet marks made by the sentries in the brickwork beneath the window frames. There is also other graffiti of the period that survives but you will have to come along on my Westminster at War walk in order to view this!

Bayonet marks left by bored US Army sentries

We close this brief look at wartime remnants by taking a look at the Greenwich Foot Tunnel which was constructed between 1899 and 1902, opening to the public in August of that year to provide a free and reliable method of commuting from south of the Thames to the then busy docks and wharves on the Isle of Dogs. Whilst the main part of the tunnel is obviously quite deep beneath the Thames, either end runs at a more shallow depth beneath the foreshore and in 1940, during a low tide period, the northern end of the tunnel was pierced by a bomb. The hurried repairs were formed from a thick steel and concrete inner lining to the existing tunnel which substantially reduces the diameter for a reasonably short distance and this repair can still be seen to this day.

Bomb damage repairs to Greenwich Foot Tunnel

There are many more reminders to be seen of our Wartime past and next time we shall take a look at some of the memorials and monuments to this period in our history.

A - Z of the Blitz (B)

Apart from Blitz, B is for Barrage Balloons. these bulbous, ungainly creatures have become one of the stock images of the Second World War, usually sitting passively as if waiting in vain for something to happen, the balloons actually served as a lethal deterrent to low flying aircraft and indirectly saved many lives during the war. 

The balloon barrage in Eltham, SE London (Greenwich Heritage Centre)

Tethered to the ground by steel cables, the purpose of the balloons was mainly to deter low flying aircraft, especially at the start of the war, the dreaded Stuka dive bombers, which had caused so much havoc during the Blitzkrieg attacks on Poland and later France and the Low Countries. In reality, the Stukas were of little use to the Luftwaffe in attacks over the UK; against determined opposition equipped with modern single engined fighters such as the Spitfire and Hurricane, the Ju-87 Stukas were easy meat and they were soon withdrawn from attacks on the UK during the Battle of Britain and took no part in the Blitz. The balloons however, continued to be useful cogs in the defensive machine. Because the height of the tethering cables could be adjusted, they served a useful purpose, along with the anti-aircraft guns in forcing the German bombers to fly at higher altitudes, thus reducing their accuracy. Barrage balloons could also be mounted in a more mobile role, fixed to trucks which enabled them to be deployed to different areas much more quickly than the conventional, ground tethered variety. Balloons were also used in great numbers at sea and footage of the great Allied invasions such as Salerno and Normandy sees the ubiquitous balloons tethered to landing craft and other vessels in an effort to deter low flying fighters from strafing the Allied vessels. 

Back on land, the balloons once again came to the forefront of British defences during the V-1 Flying Bomb attacks of 1944. Hurriedly redeployed to a ribbon of defences inside the coast, the balloons were ranged at a suitable altitude to bring down the V-1s, which being pilotless, tended to fly at a fixed course and height. They were thought to be responsible for bringing down some 230 Flying Bombs, although the Germans did counter this by fitting wire cutting devices to the leading edges of the V-1's wings. Even so, the balloons in their own small way helped slow the onslaught of these weapons on the capital.

Occasionally, these usually inert monsters broke loose from their moorings and the various Civil Defence incident logs reported damage to chimneys and other property caused by these cables becoming wrapped around protruding brickwork and already partially damaged houses and no doubt causing some light relief for their Army 'crews' from Balloon Command who were responsible for looking after them.

B also stands for Bombs and Bomb Disposal. We shall examine the various types of bombs when their turn comes in the alphabet, suffice to say that the Luftwaffe used high explosive bombs of various sizes, ranging from small 100 kgs, right up to the 1000 kgs 'Hermann', so called by the British because of it's portly appearance, said to be reminiscent of Hermann Goring. They also used the small 1 kg incendiary bomb and the much larger 500 kgs and 1000 kgs Parachute Mine, adapted from naval mines into fearsome airburst weapons.

A German 500kg bomb at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea (author's photo)

Disposal of the large numbers of 'dud' bombs or UXBs as they became known took a special kind of courage and many examples of heroism occurred during the Blitz by various members of the Bomb Disposal teams, many of whom paid the ultimate price. The disposal and defusing of most bombs was the responsibility of the Army's Royal Engineers, whilst the Parachute Mines, with their naval heritage, became the job of the Royal Navy to deal with. Perhaps two of the most famous pieces of bomb disposal came at St Paul's Cathedral in September 1940, which was described in the September 2011 edition of this blog, whilst and example of the Senior Service's efforts was described in June 2010 when we learned of the exploits of Sub Lieut. Jack Easton RNVR and his assistant Ordinary Seaman Bennett Southwell for their part in attempting to defuse a parachute mine in Hoxton, East London in October 1940. Both of these incidents earned the bomb disposal teams well earned George Crosses, in Southwell's case, posthumously.

B is for Blackout and one of the major raisons d'etre of the Air Raid Wardens described in the previous edition of this blog. On the outbreak of war, an immediate blackout was imposed across the whole of the United Kingdom. This effectively meant the extinguishing, or covering of every exterior light, or interior light that could be seen through an unguarded window. Today, even those of us who live in the country and are used to 'proper' darkness without street lighting, cannot really imagine what it is like to have absolutely no lights visible outside, for even in the countryside towns and villages, we are now used to seeing interior lights spilling over into the darkness. In 1939, all this stopped; windows had to be covered with thick blackout curtains, or even painted over; streetlights and traffic lights were extinguished and those few of the latter which were allowed to remain were so hooded as to be almost invisible to those few vehicles still on the road. Vehicle headlamps were masked and covered to such an extent as to almost useless and interiors lights on buses and trains were removed and replaced with tiny blue lights, laughably known as 'reading lamps' which in reality were next to useless. The glazed roofs of railway stations were painted over and lights extinguished, whilst steam trains and electric locomotives and trams equipped with spark arrestors to try and cut down on the tell-tale sparks visible from the air. To add a measure of compensation, kerbstones, traffic bollards, lamp posts and even tree trunks were painted with black and white stripes to try and reflect what little light there was available from either the Moon or from the reduced lighting from the few vehicles on the road. 

ARP Notice & Lighting restrictions (author's photo)

The result of all this was chaos. Before the onset of the Blitz, there were more casualties caused by road traffic accidents than by German bombs and during the so called Phoney War period, the stock of the Air Raid Wardens dipped in the eyes of the British public as the Wardens were quick to pounce on anyone forgetful enough to put in place their Blackout curtains, or to open a door without first extinguishing the light inside the house. The familiar cry of "Put that light out!" now made immortal by Mr Hodges of Dad's Army was not wholly the stuff of comedy fiction. The British public endured the Blackout for 5 long years, until it was replaced on September 17th 1944 by the less stringent 'Dim Out', which recognised that the threat from manned German bombers was all but over but which also acknowledged that the V-1 and V-2 were no respecter of the Blackout

B is also for 'Black Saturday.' This was the name given by Londoners to Saturday, 7th September 1940, which is seen as being the first day of the Blitz on London. Up until this point in time, although London had been brushed by German bombs, these had mainly been in the outskirts of the capital and for the most part incidental to attacks on industrial targets or RAF airfields in the London suburbs. All this began to change when on the night of 24th/25th August, a flight of German bombers, supposedly due to a navigational error, dropped bombs on the north of London and the City, with the first bomb falling in Moorgate at around 12:15 a.m. on the 25th August. Churchill immediately ordered a retaliatory attack on Berlin and although the RAF at that time were ill equipped to launch a meaningful attack on the German capital, the resulting minor damage caused by two raids was sufficient for Hitler to order the Luftwaffe to switch it's attacks from the RAF's airfields to London.

Fires from the burning Surrey Docks - 7th Sept 1940 (National Archives)

When the sirens sounded a little after 4.30 pm on September 7th, it was the precursor of  57 continuous nights of bombing and a Night Blitz that would last, for London, until the night of 10th/11th May 1941. On that first afternoon of the Blitz, the RAF was initially but on this rare occasion, caught off guard and nearly one thousand bombers and fighters found their targets, mainly in the East End but also causing grievous damage to the Woolwich Arsenal and devastating the Surrey Commercial Docks, some parts of which were never fully utilised again. The bombers returned that evening, guided by the fires lit by their earlier sorties. Casualties were high amongst the civilian population, with some four hundred being killed with many more wounded.

Although these initial attacks were focused on the eastern side of the capital, gradually the attacks crept westwards, until eventually no part of London was left untouched.

Next time, we shall look at the letter 'C' including Cabs, Coventry and Churchill.