Caring on the Home Front - Volunteer memories from World War Two

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Civil defence training

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• Before the war started, it was thought that there might be poisonous gas attacks, and that large-scale bombing was very likely. People needed to be trained to deal with this.
• As early as 1935, the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance were asked to teach first aid and anti-gas measure to Civil Defence teams and the general public. By 1939 St. John Ambulance alone had trained over 60,000 members of the public.

• People were taught to make the most of whatever material they had:
• “Don’t learn how to dress a cut, a leg torn off, or blown off with a high explosive. Grasp the principle underlying the dressing of all and every wound – cut or damage the skin and you let poisonous germs in.
  How can the germs be killed? Don’t think of things you have to go and buy – think of things you have with you, such as methylated spirit, and petrol. You can wash your hands with [these], also the wound of a patient. Be it a thorn prick or a ghastly wound, the wound will heal.”

• The training taught people how to recognise potential war gases and their effects, as well the importance of gas masks and protective clothing, and how to protect their homes from gas attacks. They learnt basic treatments for gas poisoning, and how First Aid Posts and Decontamination Centres would be run.

• Betty Sykes, a member of the British Red Cross, remembers how anti-gas training involved smelling fake gas:
  “They came round with them, little bottles. He brought this, I’m sure he said it was the geranium one. He shouted out ‘go on smell it, it won’t hurt you!’ As I went like that, it blew up in my face. It didn’t knock me out but it made me walk a bit lop-sided. “

• In the end, gas attacks did not happen. However, the training was very important as it helped Civil Defence workers and the general public cope with injuries from bombing.