Ack ack fire frays nerves

October 1940

Tuesday 1st
Denbigh Place


In basement now. Raid overhead. Not so bad. Bombs in distance but ack ack fire overhead. Ack acks fire fills Perkins with fighting spirit. Sharp bang bang banging fills me with headache. If they brought down more Jerries, I might tolerate noise.

Perkins brought mattresses down and made Morrison shelter out of the table. Put Cleerol anti-shatter laquer on windows and made small First Aid kit with Burnol, zinc oxide adhesive plaster, cotton wool and wound dressing just in case. We have two hurricane lamps and plenty of emergency candles. It's cosy but it can be suffocating, especially when the bombs are close.

Wednesday 2nd. '40 Dolphin Square

Cummings taken to hospital last night with a cracked rib after an AFS hose pipe broke free, wriggled across street and whacked C. across the back, knocking her over. Doctors said fall caused fracture, not hose pipe. Must have been a new fire auxiliary who let go. Everyone was out of the building and there were no casualties when it happened. Heavey rescue had just given all-clear. Luckily, water pressure was low, otherwise C. would have had more than a broken a rib.
More black out motor crashes lately. No serious injuries but plenty of wrecked motor cars.

Thursday 3rd, 1940
Denbigh Place

Heard lone Jerry swoop down over Denbigh Place last night. Dashed out with my stirrup pump and found strangest sight. The whole street was blacked out except for a straight line of fires that ran right down the middle. Incendiary bombs. Looked a candlelit table awaiting guests. For a minute it was beautiful, until I snapped out of trance and ran over with stirrup pump putting out fires.

That's when I noticed fire on roof of Great War man's house. Banged on his door and asked where the ladder and broom. Didn't say why. Didn't want to frighten him any more. I scrambled up and beat out the fire out with the broom. It wasn't bad. No damage that I could see.

It was all too much for Great War Man. When I climbed down, people were crowded round the front step trying to bring him round. He'd fainted. Must have thought he'd met his maker. The ARP warden called LAAS ambulance. I timed them. Four minutes later Hatfield and Parker arrived from Dolphin depot. Great War man conscious by then, but rambling on about Mustard Gas. They loaded him into the back of ambulance and took him to Dolphin First Aid. V calm and professional, were Hatfield and Parker. I was v. proud to be Dolphin ambulance girl.


Friday 4th, 1940
Chelsea

Hutch's house a dream! Rooms are huge with high ceilings and grand glass chandeliers that make Mrs. P's Nervous Nellie look pathetic. Lovely Georgian windows boarded up now, but Hutch says they let in exquisite light. The rooms are filled with art and tapestries collected from all over world. Brass urns and candelabra are dull now but Hutch says a good polish makes them sparkle. Who has time to polish silver in middle of Blitz?

Old family painting in the entrance hall shows with Victorian grandparents sitting like king and queen thrones and four small children around them. Hutch says baby is her father. Behind are three Indian servants. Everyone is scowling. Were Victorians as miserable as they looked? Hutch's father was born in India. Mother brought him to England when he was twenty to marry him off. He stayed against his parent's wishes.

Hutch showed me her clothes: six wardrobes packed solid with beautiful ball gowns she wore in her deb days. Most out-of-date now and Hutch says no self-respecting deb would be caught dead in them. Tried a few things and when I looked in the mirror I saw a West Country ambulance girl transformed into a London debutante in her best finery, all shimmering and beautiful. Hutch says you don't need beauty or intelligence to be deb, just a family with money. We laughed and drank more of Hutch's father's gin.

Saturday 5th, 1940
Dolphin

Civil Defence is looking for volunteers to be in Cinderella panto in January. It's open to rescue parties, First Aiders, stretcher bearers, auxiliary ambulance and fire brigade personnel, wardens and all other CD workers. All silent heroes, sign said. Is that what we are? Silent heros?
Sent off a note asking for information.

Pickering and I listened to Tommy Handley doing It's that Man Again on Beeb while we played ping pong this aft. Had to stop to laugh a few times. Wireless accumulator running low. Must take out for charging.

Sunday 6th, '40
Denbigh

Weather awful. Wind and rain. Dreary. Makes dirt seem dirtier, and washes away the little colour left these days in London. Everything is covered in blanket of plaster dust, even the leaves on the trees. And the birds! Soon, they will be gone. Then things will be bleak.

No sleep last night. Blitz kept waking me. Sometimes the sleep is worse than blitz with terrible dreams about Nazis stomping up and down Denbigh Place with black jack boots, waving shells of mustard gas, shouting in German. Woke to moaning minnies wailing with more raiders on way and the bloody ack ack fire. Ack ack fire is bloody nuisance. Why can't they turn them off???

Monday 7th, 1940

Had trouble today with Mustard Gas Man. Asked why we're spending so much time on anti-gas precautions when we haven't had an attack. If Hitler had mustard gas, wouldn't he have dropped it by now? Shouldn't we be spending time and money on shelters and housing for East End?

Knew I shouldn't have said it right away. Saw the veins puffing up at his temples and his face was turn red. Whole room fell silent as he fixed his red-rimmed eyes on me and waved me to the front. He rolled up a sleeve and showed us a forearm covered with a ghastly scar of pink skin. It was shiny and folded over on itself, healed, but oddly creased. His voice was cold, and dead calm when he spoke. "This is what happens to people who don't know what they are doing in a gas attack. As Civil Defence workers, you and everyone in this room will be expected to know how to treat these injuries. It is not for you, my girl, or anyone else to decide the contents of those shells as they're falling from the sky. Now sit down, listen up and be grateful you are here today." When he finished, he was shaking. I will hear more of this.

Tuesday 8th, 1040

Called in to see SO Harvey. She was in one of her official moods. Apparently, Mustard Gas Man sent furious report to Regional HQ about me. Harvey says he knows people in LCC and Civil Defence and wants something done, punishment. Harvey said I was silly to ask such questions and should have known better. She got cross with me when I asked her opinion of anti-gas precautions and said I should learn to button up.

Later

Shaftesbury Fire Station took direct hit and was demolished, killing two. Firemen and auxiliaries were badly injured.