Panic measures c. 1939: with two million unemployed, Guardsmen were employed filling sandbags to protect government buildings in Whitehall. |
You could put hundreds of thousands of people in them in perfect safety, you could have food and water and everything you needed down there, if you ever could be moved to do anything about anything, but muddling through is awfully jolly and British, and how too British we British are, aren't we?Of the preparations in the run-up to Munich, he then wrote:
What an incredible scene of confusion and chaos that was, after six years of constant warnings. On the outskirts of London, Aircraftmen struggling to get a few balloons into the air, many of which broke away, as who should say, "Include me out of this farce, will you?", and drifted off into the blue.The passive defensive measures comprised gas masks, trenches, bomb-proof shelters, evacuation, he wrote, but the more important measures are the active ones: anti-aircraft guns, fighting aircraft. Do you think, he asked, we were readier in these things?The answer had come on 4th November (reported on the day from a debate on 3 November), with Hore-Belisha, the Secretary of State for War. He, says Reed, confirmed some of the worst fears that had been expressed about useless anti-aircraft guns, deficient transport, wrong ammunition.