Remembering the Civilians

Memorial to the Civilian War Dead of St Marylebone (author's photo)

2015 sees the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the commencement of the Blitz, initially on London but which ultimately affected most cities and towns within the United Kingdom. The New Year of 1941 saw Britain in the midst of the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against British cities, with seemingly no end in sight. Indeed, London was still licking it's wounds from the great fire raid of 29th/30th December 1940, when much of the City of London, the historic 'Square Mile' had been torched and which had seen St Paul's Cathedral defiantly rising above the smoke and flames.

A simpler memorial for the Chelsea War Dead (author's photo)

Memorial to five Fire Watchers at Chelsea Old Church (author's photo)

Although the casualty figures were never to reach the doom-laden figures predicted in some quarters before the war, some 60,000 British civilians were ultimately to lose their lives during the Second World War as a result of enemy action, including the Blitz, the so-called "Baedecker" Raids and Little Blitz, along with the 'Vengeance' Weapons - the V-1 and V-2 missiles.

One of the questions often asked is how are the Civilian war dead remembered and commemorated, outside of their own families?

The excellent Commonwealth War Graves Commission keep meticulous records, not only of military war dead from the Great War onwards, but also of the civilians of the Commonwealth who lost their lives during the Second World War. There is also a Roll of Honour kept at St George's Chapel, Westminster Abbey which is on permanent display.

Civilian casualty records, like the Civil Defence system of this country, was organized on a municipal basis, which can sometimes lead to confusion when attempting to trace a casualty of the Blitz. The criteria used for recording a casualty is not where he or she lived but rather where the person died, so for example, if an individual lived in Greenwich, Southeast London but worked in Westminster and died at his or her place of work, then the individual is recorded as a Westminster rather than a Greenwich casualty - their place of residence was irrelevant, unless of course they died at home or within their 'home' borough. Any method of recording casualty figures can seem heartless at times, but the system that was used was probably the most sensible that could have been devised.

As to physical reminders, these take many forms. Obviously many casualties are commemorated in the conventional manner by a grave marker but with many of the larger incidents, individual grave stones or markers were not possible, as the victims were buried in mass graves. This was the case for example, at Coventry, where 808 victims of the 14th November 1940 were interred at the London Road Cemetery and commemorated accordingly.

At the site of other major incidents, such as Britain's worst V-2 at Woolworth's, New Cross branch, a commemorative plaque has been erected by the local authority. Other local authorities, apart from having their own books of remembrance, usually on display at the relevant Town Hall or borough archives, ensured that a physical memorial was erected within the borough, which often listed the names involved.

The plaque at the site of Woolworth's, New Cross (author's photo)

 

The organized civilian services such as the Police Services and Fire Brigades are remembered too - the charity Firemen Remembered has an ongoing project to commemorate the fallen London firefighters of the London Fire Brigade, Auxiliary Fire Service and National Fire Service. This writer has been fortunate enough to attend several of the unveilings of their distinctive plaques and it is to be hoped that many more of these will follow in the coming years.

The plaque to Auxiliary Fireman Sidney Alfred Holder (author's photo)

The other memorial that one stumbles across from time to time, are the most moving of them all; these are the private commemorations, of work colleagues, loved ones, friends, neighbours, of people who simply deserved to be remembered. This writer came across one such memorial recently when attending a birthday party at a Girl Guides Hall in Ruislip, Middlesex and is a moving tribute to Capt. Constance Castle and Ranger Mary Groves, the latter aged only 16, who "together were called to Higher Service due to enemy action - February 28th 1941." 

Ruislip Guides' Hall (author's photo)

A local tribute placed there by the victims' Guiding colleagues and friends and which, quite rightly is still on display almost 75 years later.

Sometimes the memorial commemorates civilians caught in a much larger tragedy, such as the plaque at Turks Row, Chelsea which although rightly giving prominence to the 74 American service men and women killed by the V-1 which fell there on 3rd July 1944, also mentions the 3 civilians killed in the same incident.

Turks Row plaque (author's photo)

Another 'private' memorial can be found in The Cut, near Waterloo Station and commemorates, in a very low-key manner, those sheltering in the cellar of the erstwhile Walklings Bakery on the night of 16th/17th April 1941. The building suffered a direct hit and all 54 people sheltering below were killed. This plaque is so small that it can easily be missed but to those 'in the know' it can still be found as a moving tribute to those who lost their lives.

The discovery of these private memorials is a source of constant fascination and if any readers of this blog are aware of any, then please feel free to leave a comment or email me with the details.

Next time, we shall take a look at some of the plaques commemorating some of 'the Lost Treasures of London' - those historic buildings lost forever during the War.

Remembering them all

The Charlton Athletic FC memorial (author's photo)

Last weekend, this writer was lucky enough to be present at The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic Football Club, at the unveiling of our Club's war memorial to the fallen of this famous old football club.

Fittingly, whilst this memorial was unveiled during the year marking the centenary of the outbreak to "The War to end all wars", Clive Harris, the military historian and Charlton fan who has been the driving force behind this project, was quick to point out in his brief but moving speech during the ceremony, that this memorial was for everyone associated with the club, whether they be players, officials or supporters and whatever conflict, or facet of the war they were involved in, whether military or civilian, as Charlton with it's close proximity to the Thames, was at the heart of the Blitz in 1940-41.

So perhaps with this in mind and at this remembrance weekend, perhaps now is a good time to remember those civilians and civil defence workers who lost their lives, either as innocent victims of bombing, or in the case of Civil Defence workers, trying to protect the citizens of their localities, whether in London, Coventry, Liverpool, Plymouth, or wherever in the UK that Hitler's bombs fell.

The statistics tell us that overall, some 30,000 civilians died in London during the Second World War due to enemy air attacks and the 'Vengeance' Weapons campaign of 1944-45. What mere statistics do not necessarily convey is the sheer awfulness of the reality of these figures; a glance at a typical incident log will impart some more detail - entire families wiped out, children and babies killed (the youngest this writer has seen mentioned was 9 hours old), groups of people in pubs and church congregations alive one moment and gone the next - nobody was immune. Even Armistice Day itself brought terror in wartime; on November 11th 1944, the Brook Hotel, a public house on suburban Shooter's Hill was obliterated by a V-2 rocket, the toll of 29 dead, including some on a passing bus, warranted 'major incident' status but probably had to be seen to realize the true horror of the aftermath.

Woolworth's V-2 memorial (author's photo)

The worst V-2 incident in London came just a few short miles along the A2 from Shooter's Hill, in New Cross, at a busy Woolworth's store. This time, everything that could go wrong, did - the 25th November 1944 was a busy pre-Christmas Saturday - the rumour had gone around that the Woolworth's store had received a consignment of saucepans, which had become something of a rarity in the austere conditions prevailing in the sixth year of the war and the store was busy with shoppers literally from all across London in search of one of these rare finds. In addition, the store was busy, as usual, with children eager to spend their pocket money (and 'personal points' under the rationing scheme) on sweets. At 12:25, the missile struck and what had been a bustling and busy high street was instantly turned into a scene of utter devastation and carnage as the Woolworth's store and the next door Co-op were destroyed. As with the Shooter's Hill incident, passengers on a passing bus were also victims and when, two days later, the final victims were retrieved by the rescue services, the final death toll was an appalling 168, with almost as many seriously injured, many of whom required amputations. There were few people indeed in south-east London who did not know a victim of this terrible incident.

So much for the civilians, but we should also not forget the work done by the Fire and Ambulance Services, Police, Rescue Squads, ARP Wardens and all of the other Civil Defence services, male and female, including the WVS, whose members, mainly ladies of a 'certain age' provided refreshments for those working during the Blitz, often placing themselves in as much danger as those doing the rescuing!

Wartime Civil Defence badges, from left WVS, ARP Wardens, AFS (author's photo)

The Firefighters' Memorial, appropriately sited opposite St Paul's Cathedral records the names of 1.027 men and women of the Fire Services who lost their lives during the Second World War, the London Ambulance Service lost 36 members of staff during the Blitz and the Metropolitan Police lost over 100 killed both on and off duty during the Blitz.

Apart from the casualty figures, a good indication of the bravery involved amongst the Civil Defence services, is the number of bravery awards made for services above and beyond the call of duty. We have already looked at the story of Anthony Smith GC in a February 2012 post on this blog but another example of a George Medal award is typical of those made during the Blitz.

Join the AFS (author's collection)

On the night of 19th/20th October 1940, the Red Lion public house just off Shooter's Hill was hit by a High Explosive bomb; there were thirteen fatal casualties both in the pub and in adjoining houses which had collapsed but there were also survivors trapped in the ruins. Without a thought for her own safety, Nurse Mary Thomas, whose job was to tend to the injured after they had been extracted, decided to crawl into the rubble to reach two trapped survivors and tended to their injuries whilst they were awaiting rescue. The survivors were eventually rescued and went on to make a full recovery. As a result of her bravery Nurse Thomas was awarded the George Medal.

Apart from their work with Blitz victims, the Ambulance services were often required to assist with transporting wounded soldiers who had been repatriated from the front line en route to hospitals back in the UK. The ambulance staff would always put on a brave and cheerful face for the soldiers, some of whom were suffering from appalling injuries. In Angela Raby's excellent book, 'The Forgotten Service', Babette Loraine recounted being sent to Paddington Station to collect wounded being returned from North Africa. Even her normal composure was rattled at the sight of a soldier, who had neither arms or legs and was also blind. Not surprisingly, she was temporarily taken aback but recovered sufficiently to ask the soldier the standard fall back question, if he would like a cup of tea. The soldier cheerfully replied "Can a duck swim?" Babette got the soldier his tea and gladly assisted him to drink it.

Perhaps the final word should go to an anonymous Firewoman, ostensibly operating the switchboard at Redcross Street Fire Station on the night of 29th/30 December 1940, the great City Blitz. The appliances had all been ordered out early in the raid and in the meantime, the fires were gradually creeping ever closer to the Fire Station. Senior Officers were debating whether to evacuate when an ARP Warden burst in, yelling "Hey! Your bloody roof is on fire!"

"Whoopee!" cried a Firewoman and grabbed a stirrup pump before making for the stairs followed by her colleagues armed with buckets of water. At last they had a chance to prove themselves equal to the men and made an expert job of extinguishing the fires. The Fire Station, along with the Whitbread Brewery, was one of the few buildings to survive in an area which was devastated by fires.

Such was the spirit of both civilians and Civil Defence workers.

Whatever you are doing this Remembrance Day, remember them all.

Published Sources:

Hitler's Rockets: The Story of the V2s - Norman Longmate - Frontline Books, 2009
The Forgotten Service: Auxiliary Ambulance Station 39 - Angela Raby - After The Battle 1999
The London Blitz: A Fireman's Tale - Cyril Demarne OBE - After The Battle 1991

Strike Hard, Strike Sure; The Bomber Command Memorial

Strike Hard, Strike Sure (all images author's photos)

On the 28th June last, Her Majesty The Queen unveiled the new Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, near Hyde Park Corner. The memorial attracted much attention from some quarters, ranging from the location in one of London’s Royal Parks, to the design and size of the memorial and even after seventy years, as to whether Bomber Command should be commemorated at all, given the controversial nature in some people’s eyes of the tactics used by the Command in the area bombing of German cities, even though these were the same tactics as used by the Luftwaffe only on a much larger scale and which the Nazis would surely have replicated had they been in possession of the necessary equipment. 

RAF Bomber Command seemed to attract controversy almost throughout the War; at the beginning the Command was equipped with mainly obsolescent twin engine designs which were totally unsuited for the tasks given to them of bombing German industrial and military targets. One early attack on German warships at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuttel was particularly disastrous with almost a quarter of the twenty nine aircraft despatched being shot down and with the bombs nearly all missing their targets. Ironically, the only bombs to do serious damage fell on the Danish city of Esbjerg, some 110 miles off course, where the two innocent people killed paid testament to the lack of training and preparedness of the crews.

The training of the men was to improve and the quality of the aircrew assigned to Bomber Command was never in doubt. The road to getting better and more suitable bomber aircraft was a long and tough one however. To begin with, like the Luftwaffe, the British bombers were mainly twin-engine and obsolescent designs but unlike the Luftwaffe who were operating from captured airfields in their newly occupied territories in France and the Low Countries, Bomber Command had to travel over almost exclusively hostile territory in order to reach their targets. The Hampdens, Blenheims and Whitleys were completely unsuited to the task and the Wellington, whilst being an ingeniously designed aeroplane from the genius of Barnes Wallis, could not on its own deliver a worthwhile bomb load over these distances. To begin with though, these aircraft were all that there were and the men had to make do with what they had. 

The centrepiece of the memorial

In the early days of the ‘Phoney War’ and after the early fiascos described above, the Command had nothing more lethal to drop than leaflets but following the Blitz on British cities and the change of politcal leadership in Britain, a re-appraisal of the Command’s role took place. It was quickly realised that the original plan for daylight precision bombing was not viable given the equipment available and the level of the defences. It was quickly decided to switch to area bombing by night, where the bombers would be safer from the German defences. This was the same lesson that had been learned the hard way by the Luftwaffe. As the war went on, Bomber Command was to continue to learn and to develop and would quickly leave its German counterpart trailing far behind.

One of the first developments were the night navigation aids called ‘Gee’ and ‘Oboe’, which were both radio beam aids which greatly improved accuracy. The obsolete aircraft types were steadily phased out with new four-engine ‘heavies’ coming into service, first the Stirling which was frankly not a success, followed by the Halifax and the supremely successful Lancaster, which was to become synonymous with Bomber Command. The manpower was greatly expanded, with large numbers of Commonwealth aircrew coming into play, along with many other Allied airmen – Poles, Free French, Czech and many others.

Aircrew looking skywards

The greatest change in the Command’s fortunes came with the appointment of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris as C in C of Bomber Command in early 1942. His appointment coincided with the Area Bombing Directive of 14th February 1942, which ordered Bomber Command to target German industrial cities and the morale of the civilian population. The Command began to go on the offensive; the first German city to feel Harris’s wrath was Lubeck, which was firebombed by a modestly sized bomber force in March 1942. This was followed by Operation Millennium, when the city of Cologne was overwhelmed by a massive one thousand bomber force, in which attack Harris gambled the entire force of Bomber Command on the night of 30th/31st May 1942. The effect was shattering; the German civilian population was never allowed to feel secure and city after city began to tremble under the weight of Harris’s bomber force.

One of the many personal messages

There were many setbacks of course; for one, the Battle of Berlin as Harris dubbed it, did not result in the end of the war as he predicted but in a horrific sort of stalemate in which huge swathes of the city were destroyed at a cost of the lives of thousands of British and Commonwealth airmen. Hamburg, Dresden and Kassel amongst other cities were laid waste. Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Charles Portal, who as Chief of the Air Staff had been a leading advocate of area bombing, wrote post-war how he had visited Potsdam, a near suburb of Berlin and described how “Bert Harris removed the town of Potsdam in half an hour one night in April 1945.” So complete was the destruction that even Portal, a hardened airman well used to the horrors of bombing, was taken aback.

This victory of total bombing was not without cost; 55,573 British, Commonwealth and Allied members of Bomber Command died in carrying out their missions, as well as some 600,000 German victims of Allied bombing and 60,000 British victims of German air attacks. The controversy never left Bomber Command either; even at the time, there were those who questioned the morality of stooping to the same level as one’s enemy. After the destruction of Dresden, even Churchill began to distance himself from the policy of “bombing for terror’s sake alone” as he described it, although he was not responsible for the refusal of the incoming Labour government in 1945 to award a campaign medal for the “Old Lags” of Bomber Command as Harris had christened his ever-loyal aircrew. When he returned to power in 1951, Churchill made good his promise to honour Harris, who would accept nothing more than a Baronetcy and who would insist on wearing the Defence Medal, the same decoration as his men.

Lest we forget

Whatever the rights and wrongs and undoubted horrors of the Allied area bombing campaign, it was surely an outrage to continue to ignore the sacrifices made by the men of Bomber Command. Seventy years on, it looks as if no campaign medal will ever be forthcoming but at least the men now have a fitting memorial. Designed by Liam O’Connor, the striking memorial is built from Portland Stone and features as the centre piece a 2.7 metre high bronze statue, designed by Philip Jackson of seven bomber aircrew who have just returned from a mission and who are looking skyward, perhaps for their returning colleagues. The roof of the memorial is built from aluminium salvaged from a crashed Canadian Halifax bomber, discovered in Belgium (with the bodies of three aircrew still strapped in their seats) in 1997. The roof has been formed to evoke the Geodesic design of the famous Wellington bomber, a mainstay of the Command in the early years.

The memorial cost £5.6 million, which was raised by public donations as well as from substantial gifts from Lord Ashcroft, the businessman John Caudwell and from the late Robin Gibb, whose own father had served in Bomber Command. The result is a worthy memorial to the men of Bomber Command, as well as to the victims of all bombing during the Second World War.

When the memorial was officially unveiled by The Queen, some 6,000 surviving veterans and their families were present and no doubt many memories were rekindled during the course of the ceremony.

A glimpse of the roof formed from aluminium from a crashed Halifax bomber

When I visited the memorial a few days ago, I was extremely impressed by the design and execution of the monument, especially of the statue of the aircrew. I was also very moved by the many personal messages which had been placed at the feet of the aircrew and which made poignant reading, as well as reminding one that real people were involved here and that many memories still remain.

This is a fitting memorial, not only to the 55,573 brave men of Bomber Command but to all of the victims of bombing during the Second World War.

Lest we forget.

Published Sources:

Bomber Boys - Patrick Bishop, Harper Press - 2007

Bomber Command 1939-45 - Richard Overy, Harper Collins 1997

VCs of the Second World War - John Frayn Turner, Pen & Sword Military 2004