ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War

In the late 1930s, when war seemed inevitable and it was realised that aerial attack would be the greatest threat posed by any coming conflict, the government established a volunteer organisation – Air Raid Precautions or ARP – that would stand at the centre of the wartime civil defence. Members of the ARP distributed gasmasks to the population, and policed the blackout. Once raids started they played a vital role in shepherding people to shelter, reporting on damage, and rescuing people from wrecked buildings. Alongside the ARP the Auxiliary Fire Service (later the NFS), Police, Fire Guard and Women's Voluntary Service worked to deal with the effects of bombing raids and to minimise the suffering of the British people. Together they formed the Civil Defence Services, and this book is their history.

Peter Doyle is a scientist and military historian specialising in the role of terrain in warfare. In addition to numerous scientific books and papers, he has written: Tommy's War 1914–1918 (Crowood 2008), The Home Front: 1939-45 (Crowood, 2007, with Paul Evans); and Beneath Flanders Fields: The Underground War 1914-18 (Spellmount, 2004, with Peter Barton and Johan Vandewalle). For Shire he has written The British Soldier of the First World War, Prisoner of War in Germany and The British Soldier of the Second World War. He is co-secretary of the All Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group, and is an elected member of the British Commission for Military History. He lives in London.

In the late 1930s, when war seemed inevitable and it was realised that aerial attack would be the greatest threat posed by any coming conflict, the government established a volunteer organisation - Air Raid Precautions or ARP - that would stand at the centre of the wartime civil defence. Members of the ARP distributed gasmasks to the population, and policed the blackout. Once raids started they played a vital role in shepherding people to shelter, reporting on damage, and rescuing people from wrecked buildings. Alongside the ARP the Auxiliary Fire Service (later the NFS), Police, Fire Guard and Women's Voluntary Service worked to deal with the effects of bombing raids and to minimise the suffering of the British people. Together they formed the Civil Defence Services, and this book is their history.

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