How We Faced The Fearsome Forties (14 October 1978)

There is nothing like old newspapers for recalling the sights, sounds and atmosphere of former years.  As far as I am concerned, you can keep your official histories and government-inspired reports on this and that.  The real nitty-gritty comes through in the newspapers, even in periods when they are subject to some form of censorship.  This applies to the national press and even more so to the local press.

I have before me a copy of the Gazette for October 26, 1940.  That year was most traumatic in the lives of people now aged 55 and over – and there are still a lot of us.

When it began, we in this realm were still in the so-called “phoney war”.  When it ended, France and the Low Countries lay under the heel of the jackboot.  The war was now for real and we were “on our own”.

After the continental surrenders and the evacuation from Dunkirk, Churchill made his famous “We will never surrender” broadcast.  For home consumption, he caused to be issued to households a list of what to do and what not to do if and when the enemy gained a lodgement.  It was printed on both sides of a single sheet of paper and I still have a copy.  Its general message is “Stand firm” and it contained the following: –

“It may easily be some weeks before the enemy has been totally destroyed, that is to say, killed or captured to the last man who has landed on our shores.  Meanwhile all work must be continued to the utmost and no time lost … Help our troops all you can.  Do not tell the enemy anything. Do not help him in any way”.

Anon came the attempted conquest of our sky.  This was seen as a necessary preliminary to any seaborne and airborne invasion.  Thanks to “The Few” and the people behind them, it did not succeed.  All the enemy airforce could then do was to end the year with night blitzes on our towns and cities – apart from single raiders roaming over the country at large, usually in the evenings.

One of those raids is reported in this 1940 Gazette.  During the war newspapers were barred from naming places in such cases.  So the Gazette chooses to say that “a small Home Counties town” has been bombed.  I am informed that this was not Bletchley.  But as nearly a column of a four-column front page is given to details, I assume that the scene was not very far away.

Three bombs have been dropped. Just one of them has been fatal.  This has killed five people, including a London evacuee woman, her eight-year old son, and two evacuee children, who were all in the same house.  So this is a case of people moving or being moved from one place to another and not escaping for all that.

We catch the atmosphere of that time and place by the statement that the small town has been bombed “for the first time.”  So further raids are regarded as highly probable, if not inevitable.

That is a piece of tragedy and drama.  But throughout the paper are other pieces which help to build the atmosphere.  One is a report that the Ministry of Information is setting up a committee in North Bucks to help keep essential aspects of the war effort in the forefront of people’s minds; to discourage pessimism; to discountenance rumours and gossip which might undermine people’s confidence; and to do anything which appears necessary to keep the public in good heart.

Interest in the Bletchley Emergency War Relief Fund “continues with unabated vigour”, though it might be a month before the financial result of any particular event can be announced. Nor is more money the only requirement.  Gifts of food, especially potatoes, are needed.

The town’s Spitfire Fund has increased by nearly £120 during the past week and now stands at £373.  The staff at Bletchley Park have sent £28.

The Bletchley branch of the National Farmers’ Union has raised £550 for the Red Cross.

The Council invites tenders for the construction of six street surface shelters in Bletchley Road (Queensway).

The ARP wants the loan of saloon cars during air-raid warnings for the use of first-aid parties, owners to state whether they themselves will be available to drive.  All cars accepted are covered by the Council’s own insurance policy and motor taxation licence.

Weatherheads, the radio dealers, announce that “the new purchase tax” means prices must go up, but existing stocks will be sold at the old prices.

A whole page is given to an article on the current food situation dietetic principles and recipes.  There is also a column-length article on various ways of minimising the dangers of flying glass during air raids.  “If a window can rattle, it has a better chance of not breaking than if it is tight” is one of its statements.

Bletchley housewives have been valiantly putting up large numbers of evacuee children and other “guests” but the strain is beginning to tell, writes a contributor.  He, or she, urges women guests to see that it is not only their hostesses who do the giving.  That part of the article concludes: –

“Your hostess would not like to say some of things we have said, but a lot of Bletchley housewives are thinking them …You are happy and comfortable, Mrs. Evacuee; now give a little thought for your hostess; see what you can do to make her comfortable in her own home.”

But the Baptist Women’s League, the Methodist WPH, the Coronation Hall dances, the cattle market, etc., go their ways apparently unruffled.  “Pinocchio” is on at the Studio Cinema.  The NUR branch holds its monthly meeting.  The bowls league holds its annual dinner, though many players are away on ARP duty.  And tomorrow you will be welcome at any of the following places of worship…..

So amid the blackout, the warnings, the appeals and the exhortations, you are left with the comforting feeling that the essential Bletchley is still there.