French version here
My brother Cyril and I were Air Raid Wardens for the section
of Binley Road, Coventry, where we lived with our Parents
and Family. This involved having some training in the
effects of blast, etc., from the bombs, and also First Aid
for immediate attention to any casualties before the
Ambulance and First Aid Teams arrived on the scene.
One of our duties was to contact the people in all the
Houses in our Sector and find out how many people were
living there - a question resented by many of the occupants
until we explained that this information was necessary so
that should the house be destroyed by bombs we could tell
the rescue squads how many people they might need to look
for in the ruins. Not a nice thought but we had to be prepared.
We also had to be prepared to put out incendiary bombs, and
you can see us practicing in our back garden. We were to
have plenty of practice over the next couple of years.
Once when things seemed quiet, we decided to go to a Cinema
to the city centre, to see a Bing Crosby film. However
bombs started dropping, so we went out (after helping to
calm the panic in the cinema (it's amazing what a uniform
can do!)), and reported to the nearest Warden's Post to see
if we could help. Whilst we were there a High Explosive
fell in the street behind, and when the Warden on duty
opened the rear door to see what was happening he saw a deep
crater with flames shooting out - a gas main had burst and
ignited, but as he looked the water main also burst and put
the fire out!
