The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945

Some effort was made to cope with the effects of bombing and there is no question that the fire services responded readily and bravely to the challenge. Some 700 firemen and 20 firewomen lost their lives and over 6,000 were seriously injured. The work was exhausting and in the case of London, continuous for almost two months, during which 13,000 fires were tackled by men who were allowed only 24 hours off between 48-hour shifts. The local services were grouped into mutual aid schemes like the civil defence services, with instructions to pool operational experience, and share equipment and men. At Coventry 150 pumps were supplied by other forces, a level of aid that brought all but 5 of 200 fires under control after two days.¹⁵⁸ In major cities contingency plans were made against the prospect of fire. Large water tanks, holding from 5,000 to 1 million gallons of water, were placed in vulnerable areas. Householders were encouraged to keep their own supply of water ready in bathtubs and buckets to use against incendiary fires. The number of fireboats, to deal with dock and ship fires, increased from 5 to 250. The fire services laid 1,200 miles of black 6-inch water pipe along main urban city-centre streets to which hoses could be attached in an emergency.¹⁵⁹ In September 1940 the first steps were taken to spread responsibility among the wider population by introducing the Fire Watchers Order to compel businesses to appoint fire guards to watch for incendiaries which they could either fight themselves or call others for help. In October the Access to Property Order at last gave civil defence staff the legal right to enter private property to extinguish fire-bombs.¹⁶⁰

None of these reforms worked well enough to cope with the escalating impact of incendiary bombing from November 1940 onwards. Firms which had instituted fire-watching schemes sometimes left the premises untended in the evening or at weekends, when bombing was just as likely. In other cases fire-watchers turned up late or drunk for a duty they regarded as an imposition.¹⁶¹ The front line against incendiaries was supplied by ordinary householders, equipped if they were lucky with a stirrup pump and buckets of sand, supported by air-raid wardens and trained firefighters. Firemen often arrived only once a building was already well alight. A report to the Ministry of Home Security in December highlighted the disastrous experience of recent raids and recommended that a concerted firefighting organization be established which involved volunteers from the public, civil defences and the fire services.¹⁶² The turning point was probably the heavy raids on Manchester in late December. A few weeks before, the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) area officer in Manchester had complained to Beaverbrook that Manchester lacked a fire-prevention scheme and encouraged him to set one up. The fires that destroyed much of Merseyside between 20 and 24 December were blamed on the inadequate fire-watching provision sponsored by local business. The managing director of The Manchester Guardian reported that when the firemen arrived they failed entirely to cope, refusing to enter dangerous buildings or to tackle early conflagrations.¹⁶³