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The incendiary bomb attacks of the winter of 1940/41 demonstrated the inadequacy of the fire prevention services, which were still under a multiplicity of local authorities, though co-ordinated by the Home Office and supported by the Auxiliary Fire Service. Under the National Fire Service (Emergency Provisions) Act 1941, the Home Office set about creating a national service and until 1947 administered and controlled a national force of 350 000 men and women. A.L.(Sir Arthur) Dixon, who had made his mark in police administration between the wars, and Commander (Sir Aylmer) Firebrace were the leading figures in administration and operational control respectively.
A further force of fire watchers was created in 1943 to deal with small outbreaks and give alarms. (The Ministry set them up with a 72-page memorandum, described in one region as "As long as the Book of Genesis and as difficult to swallow".) Although the air attacks were reduced after the invasion of U.S.S.R. by Germany in the summer of 1941, continuing raids and the later attacks by V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets kept the civil defence services on alert almost to the end of the war in Europe.
Copyright © 2002 Peter N. Risbey.
