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World War II air campaign -- Air Raid Precautions (ARP)
British World War II Air Campaign: Air Raid Precautions (ARP)--Battle of Britain
Figure 1.--The caption here read, "Now, now, never mind. I won't let hem hurt you!" From her warden's post in a small Kentish village. Mrs. Mary Couchman, just as bombs began to fall, saw some children playing in the street. They were frightened by the scream and thud of the bombs, and she, gathering them in her arms, did her best to soothe them and shelter them with her own body." The Luftwaffe did not order its pilots to bomb villages, they were losing enough planes bombing cities. Some bombs did fall on villages, mostly bombers turning back and jettosning their bomb load. It is difficult to see but Air Warden is cradeling two children. We do not have a date for this photograph, but suspect in was July or Auust 1940 as we still see a gas mask bag.
The initial Luftwaffe campaign focused on 11 Group aitfields in the southeast, especially Kent as well as Channel ports. The ARP helped with the rescue effort after air raids and other attacks. Ininitially most of the ARP was middle-aged men and teenage boys. Gradually with the national emergency, women were recruited as well. ARP Wardens patrolled assigned city neigborhoods to make sure that every home was blacked out. The iniitial Lufwaffe campaign was a daylight campaign against the RAF. The Luftwaffe shifted to daylight attacks on London which is known as the Blitz (September 1940). With increased enemy bombing during the Blitz, the ARP services were central in reporting and dealing with bombing incidents. They identified unexploded bombs and alerted the police and bomb disposal teans. They managed the air raid sirens and ensured people were directed to shelters. With the emergencuy, women became involved in ARP services through the Women's Voluntary Service. Some women became ARP Ambulance Drivers and Attendants whose job was to help administer first aid to casualties, search for survivors, and in many grim instances, help recover bodies, sometimes those of their own colleagues. When this failed and increasing losses forced the Luftwaffe to shift to night-time bombing, the black out became very important. Boys served as ARP messengers. The effectiveness of the German aerial bombardment campaign proved less than anticipated. There was substantial property damage and civilian casualties, but far less than anticipated. And the Luftwaffe did not significantly impair the British war econonomy. This was because the Luftwaffe was a tactical force and the RAF exacted a heavy toll on the slow-moving bombers. After the British sucessfully withstood the Blitz, Hitler shifted the Luftwaffe east to prepare for Barbarossa (1941). His thinking was once the Red Army was destroyed, the British could be dealt with. The morale of the British people remained high througiout the Blitz. The ARP headquarters was at Baylis House in Slough, Buckinghamshire.
