Sirens Silk and Spitfires
Letchworth and the Second World War

The Homefront

Patriotic Letchworth Saves the Pennies
Massive propaganda campaigns ran throughout the war, encouraging people to save their money and to give whatever they could to help the war effort. People responded enthusiastically and thousands of savings groups were established up and down the country. A propaganda campaign featuring the cartoon character ‘the squander bug' encouraged people not to spend.

Money raising schemes were often very innovative. The Spitfire Campaign included paying to view a German Messershmitt Fighter Plane that had been shot down by the allies. There was also an auction of items including: Ebenezer Howard's Shorthand Typewriter, handkerchiefs made from German Parachutes a ‘Mr Wu Shirt' and a stuffed Monkey that belonged to the celebrity George Formby.

Letchworth Garden City raised over £830,000 in total for its Savers Campaigns. The equivalent of around £33,000,000 in 2004.

Civil Defence
Letchworth, like the rest of the country, prepared itself for war with trenches and shelters, air raid precautions and an enthusiastic volunteer force.

There were many air raid shelters, on Town Square, Rushby Mead, Hillbrow and Nevells Road, in the factories and schools. At Westbury School the shelters were named after nursery rhymes to help prevent the children getting scared. There were also static water tanks to provide extra water in case of bomb damage, the largest supply was the swimming pool on Norton Common. There was an Emergency Committee of 22 people that planned for a possible invasion. The plan covered everything from food shortages to toilets. In case of invasion a temporary army of 478 people could be called upon. The inner keep, as it was called, was the Spirella Building where the last stand of Letchworth would take place.

Letchworth had the 34 Company, 2 Battalion Hertfordshire Home Guard under Major Gavin Jones. The battalion was raised in 1940 but training and preparations for civil defence were taking place as far back as 1937.

Local invasion exercises for the Letchworth Home Guard became a common sight. The Home Guard would help protect Britain should the German's successfully invade. In April 1941 the town practised the effect of a tear gas attack. Civilians were warned: ‘Anyone caught in it without their gas masks will be sorry for themselves.' …And many were!

There was a danger that enemy spies might be hiding in the area. People were encouraged to be careful of what they said and to whom they said it. Thoughout Britain signposts were blacked out or removed.

Food Glorious Food
From 8 January 1940 food was rationed. People exchanged coupons for food. There were fewer luxuries particularly imported food. Rationing continued well into the 1950's, the last thing to be de-rationed was meat in 1954.

People were encouraged to ‘Dig for Victory' and grow their own food to supplement rationing. This was not a problem for Letchworth people as gardening had always been a part of the Garden City ethos.

People in Letchworth had the advantage of wild food in the surrounding countryside such as berries, mushrooms and nettles.

Many people kept pigs, rabbits and chickens in their gardens. There were also Pig and Poultry Clubs. Letchworth Police Pig Club produced 70,000 rashers of bacon. These were donated to Letchworth Bacon Company providing 22,000 rations of rashers!

Women and the War
Women were keen to serve. Thousands queued outside recruiting offices to join one of the three women's services, the WRNS (Womens Royal Naval Service), WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) and the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service). Although the dangers of service were very real, many women joined for the thrill and excitement and the chance to do something that would make a difference. During the 1940s very few women had careers and many joined the war effort to avoid going into service (a maid servant to the wealthy). Many even lied about their age and there are accounts of 16 year olds joining up.

All women who could were obliged to do some sort of work for the war effort usually working full time or part-time in a war-factory. Most Letchworth factories predominately employed women. Some women joined the Land Army, replacing men in farms. Older women often looked after the children of younger women so that they could go out to work.

All of this created a new sense of liberation for many women (and no doubt a greater sense of fatigue!) For the first time women were wearing trousers (more practical when working in a factory), dating and drinking alcohol more freely. One gentlemen wrote to The Citizen newspaper:

"It seems strange that trousered women can run amok at will, for frankly the sight is criminal and an affront to the senses."

“A weight has been lifted from us. We are no longer Pariahs as they hourly and daily told us in Germany. You gave us back our confidence and that is the foundation on which our future can be rebuilt ”.

Many more Jews came to Letchworth when the war started. By April 1941 when Dr Joseph Herman Hertz, Chief Rabbi to the British Empire visited the town, there were over 1500 Jews in Letchworth from all over Europe included Czechoslovakia, Poland, Austria and Germany. There was a Hebrew Congregation and a local synagogue.

Evacuees
Predicting large numbers of civilian casualties from bombs and gas the Government planned for the large scale evacuation of school children and their carers, from Britain's cities, to the country. The evacuation began on the 1st September 1939 and one and a half million people made use of the scheme. People in Letchworth and other towns chosen for the scheme were obliged to take one evacuee per spare bedroom but many offered more.

Thousands of children with their name labels tied to them, clutching suitcases and gas masks, waved goodbye to their parents. Some children saw it as a glorious adventure but many others were extremely traumatised.

Over the weekend of 1st September, over 3,000 adults and children arrived in Letchworth from North London.

Another 76 children from Enfield were evacuated to Letchworth in October 1939. In July 1940, over 700 children were evacuated from Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Recollections from evacuees to Letchworth tell of crowded schoolrooms and happy hours spent bike riding and swimming. Some children were very happy in their billets but some were not. Often children moved homes two or three times. Clashes were inevitable. Throughout the country, by January 1940, when no invasion took place, more than half of the official evacuees had returned home. By August 1940 only 600 evacuees remained in the town.

Click here to read their stories

War Workers
The population was also increased by war workers who had come from all over the country to work in the town's factories and were billeted in peoples homes. Douglas Dawson, an evacuee to Letchworth from Bexhill-on-Sea described the hardships of such overcrowded living:

‘Number 51 was very crowded. The family also gave shelter to a succession of factory workers, many of whom were on nightshifts. So, as we children got out of bed in the morning, a worker jumped in for his days sleep. When we went to bed in the evening the beds were still warm from their previous occupants.'

In May 1941 Letchworth welcomed fifty Indian Technicians who had been specially selected to visit Britain to receive specialist training for war production. They were trained at the Ascot Training Centre which also taught British workers and was visited by The King and Queen in September 1941. They stayed at the People's House, Letchworth.

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