Wartime defences

Thousands of these messages were dropped by the Luftwaffe over Britain in June 1941 Similar bikes to these roared round Coventry during the war

Suppose there is some truth about U-boat activity in the Atlantic. U-boats were very difficult to find then, suppose they still are. Have you read 'Das Boot' (The Boat) Kaga? A good book about U-boat activity during the war, can really recommend it. I know that leaflets were dropped over the UK but never saw one myself. Product of Joe Goebbels I suppose as he was Hitler's propaganda minister. Do you remember William Joyce? Also known as Lord Haw Haw. I still remember his propaganda broadcasts to England, he always started his broadcasts with 'Germany calling, Germany calling'. I think he was called Haw Haw as he tried to put on a very upmarket English accent.

"Do you remember William Joyce? Also known as Lord Haw Haw. I still remember his propaganda broadcasts to England, he always started his broadcasts with 'Germany calling, Germany calling'. I think he was called Haw Haw as he tried to put on a very upmarket English accent." And got hanged for his efforts, after the war.

Greg, Les, Yes I remember them well, we had a lad could take Haw Haw off well so when the teacher turned his back, he would say "Germany calling, Germany calling" to roars of laughter. I really put the picture of the bikes on to show the blackout masks. But Zigzag was still in my life during the fifties. There was a three day race meeting at a London track, I think it was 1952 time, that coincided with an ex-comrades meeting so I decided to stay in London a couple of nights. At the old comrades do, a couple of guys approached me - would I be interested in a little 'job' outside the law, there would be no guns, knives, etc, strictly a timing and military precision job. I would never have to worry about money again. I suppose they thought with the reputation of race meetings I might be interested. I turned it down flat. In 1963 I read the reports of the train 'job' and smiled. Done by a bunch of amateurs they quickly got caught. But years later I found out, yes, one of the two boys who approached me at that meeting was one of the guys who got caught. The film 'Oceans Eleven' also reminded me of that meeting.

Hello both. Yes I think that Bill Joyce was an Englishman and therefore his crime was treason. Think that treason is the only crime in England that still carries the death penalty.

Hi Lesmac, Joyce was actually an American born in New York. His family moved to Ireland when he was very young and the family took out Irish citizenship for their children as both parents were of Anglo/Irish descent. After the Irish Civil War they moved to England for the remainder of their lives. Joyce apparently in later years applied for, and got, a British passport, lying about his place of birth, and it was because of this he was tried for treason. There were arguments at the time about the charge. As with all executions his body was buried in the prison confines, although seemingly in the 1970's he was exhumed and re-buried in Southern Ireland. ps. I do believe he took out German citizenship as well!

I knew little about his background but remember his broadcasts very well. He would often put in little snippets of information that could only have been obtained by a spy, such things as "the clock at Nuneaton station is four minutes slow". That sort of thing just to let us know that we were being watched. I also recall the coded messages that were broadcast by the BBC after the six o'clock news. Such odd sentences that only the French resistance would understand.

But hasn't the clock at Nuneaton Station always been 4 minutes slow! The Sparrow has settled on the Daffodil, LesMac

Now then Mr Mods, you are showing your age. I would like to know the last time you visited Nuneaton As for the bird on the daffs, you are spot on.

LesMac. As I remember it there were only two channels, national and regional. We listened mainly to regional I believe, think it was Midlands, lot of music, was it Jack Jackson or some double barrelled name. Mother also liked the Palm Court Orchestra, used to be a lot of organ music in those days too. Haw-Haw we used to pinch our nose when we copied him, don't think anyone took him seriously. And wasn't there a French programme that followed the news? Me, I loved the outdoors, and with the presence of soldiers around us as well, Geordie, Scouse, broad Scots, all new to me, I was on a learning curve. Loved every minute of it.

Hi Kaga. We had the Home Service and Light Programme, Nothing else except what we kids called the Turnip Stations, anything that wasn't English. Every radio had a tuning system with a large station finder that named every radio station on the planet. Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Rome and dozens more. Could only get a few of them and what we got we couldn't understand. The radio aerial was a thing of wonder. For us it was a wire from the radio, up to the bedroom and then down to the bottom of the garden. The earth was usually a 3ft stair rod driven into the ground with the radio suitably connected. And then there was the wet cell battery that required frequent charging and also the grid bias battery. All that for the old three valve radio. After the war came the superheterodyne radios, no earth, no aerial, bliss.

Well I believe the wartime defences were left to the war chiefs, but the Council were left to defend the people, first they had to organize the ARP etc and find them meeting places, then they had to distribute shelters, I think they ran an ad in the paper, you had to apply for your shelter, bucket and stirrup pump etc, the council delivered them free of charge, but you had the back breaking job of digging the hole in the back garden or wherever, and god knows that turned up some funny relics. Then there were the sand bags, really was a hundred and one things. Old people were a problem, they could not climb in to shelters or such, or cope with the blackout very well, a lot of headaches for everyone. a trying time even before the bombs fell. Finding gun sites were much easier.

Although we had an Anderson shelter dumped in our back garden it was never assembled. The nuts and bolts that came with it where used elsewhere.. Dad was flight engineer with Bomber Command and I think they did 30 tours of duty then he got a few weeks leave. By the end of his first tour the bombing of Coventry had just about finished and so the shelter was never installed. What eventually happened to it I have no idea. Our neighbours had an Morrison shelter that doubled as a dining table. After the war our stirrup pump and bucket were used for watering the back garden. That was the only use the pump ever had. Kaga may correct me if I am wrong but I think that with the bucket came a bag of sand. Sand should have been put in the bucket to be used to extinguish an incendiary bomb. If two bombs fell then it was just to bad.

LesMac. Yes, of course you're right, but I do believe the sand, the bucket and stirrup pump were classed as extras, and I have no idea what happened to our shelter after the war either.