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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Katie Holyoak, for Three Counties Action, on behalf of Brian Gurney, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Because of the risk of being bombed by enemy aircraft there were strict rules about lighting and showing lights in case they were seen from the air. Street lamps were not lit so we had to carry torches, but we had to shine them down; never in the air. This was called “the black out” and all the windows of the houses had to have curtains that were lined with black material or black covered frames that we fitted in the windows at dusk.
Most of the shops and many houses as well as buses had tape stuck over the windows so that the glass would not splinter. The streets at night, and particularly during an air raid, were patrolled by Air Raid Wardens who, if they just saw a crack of light showing form a window, would bang the door or window and shout “put that light out”. It was so important that anyone who saw a light showing would shout the same. Cars and other vehicles had shields with slots in them fitted to their headlights so that the lights would only shine down very close to the vehicle. It was very very dark outside at night, although in the summer it stayed light until 11 o’clock because the clocks were put on two hours for ‘double summer time’ to preserve power. Other precautions included removing all signposts in case we were invaded, and we had to be careful what we said in public to avoid giving away any secrets. The saying was “careless talk costs lives”. Barrage balloons were floated in the air and tethered with heavy wire to stop any low flying enemy aircraft, and when there was an air raid we could hear the continued banging on anti aircraft guns and see the searchlights (like broad white lasers) probing the night sky trying to spot the airplanes.

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