1944: Doodlebugs and Flying Gas Pipes
I am not a history buff, nor am I preoccupied with the history of the Second World War. However, for my parents living in greater London and about to take on a tiny infant, I know they found living there in 1944 a time of privation, hope and fear. It was hard. Most consumer goods were scarce. The UK had introduced rationing at the beginning of the war. It started in September 1939 with petrol rationing, followed by restrictions on bacon, butter and sugar at the beginning of 1940. Slowly, the extent of rationing grew By August 1942 all foods apart from vegetables and bread were rationed: perhaps somewhere in Whitehall the decision was made the British could live by bread alone! Fruit and vegetables were limited by supply rather than rationing, so that some items, like bananas, almost disappeared. The absence of that fruit led to the resurrection of the 1923 song Yes, We Have No Bananas, with greengrocers posting the wording on their shop windows, a perfect illustration of the British humour at work. Many people grew their own vegetables, encouraged by a government Dig for Victory campaign. My mother talked about ‘carrots for the night fighters’, as they were said to improve night vision.
Talking to my parents and their friends as I was growing up, it was easy to sense their pride and their determination through those years. My mother, never greatly enthused about cooking, would explain how she managed to put some varieties into her meals. My dad, a schoolteacher, stuck in his familiar life in London, would talk about the nighttime curfew as a boon for amateur astronomers like himself. My first wife’s father, a fireman, had been enlisted, and would tell me about guarding fuel and ammunition dumps (and in his weaker moments, about the thriving black market in which he and his brothers were small time participants). The British ‘bulldog’ image was motivating for so many city residents: they weren’t going to be beaten.
The Germans never crossed the English Channel (the British name for it), and England never was invaded. However, German military might was evident on a daily basis from early in the war. After a battle for aerial supremacy, The Battle of Britain, Germany switched tactics and began bombing raids on many cities, especially London. The Blitz ran from September 1940 through to February 1941, initially concentrating on daytime sorties, but from November it shifted into night time attacks. After trying and failing to destroy the British Air Force, later the raids sought to obliterate strategic targets and promote fear. The result was the opposite of what had been intended. Londoners became even more determined to resist attacks; the community came together, working to clear bomb sites, finding alternative housing and more generally helping each other. As my mother told it, bombing ensured the desire to work with neighbours and resist enemy actions was increased rather than diminished.
Germany’s interests shifted to the east and Russia. Raids continued, but at a much lower level of intensity. At the same time, England’s defences against air raids improved. The US had entered the war, and Operation Overlord, the codename for an Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe was planned. General Eisenhower was appointed commander of the ‘Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force’; and General ‘Monty’ Montgomery was commander of all the land forces involved in the invasion. Having tricked the Germans into believing an invasion was planned further north, the operation was launched on 6 June 1944 with airborne and amphibious assaults, as 160,000 troops crossed into France, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.
As the news came through, Londoners were relieved. They felt the end of the war was in sight, and the bombing of London was surely about to end. However, jubilation was short-lived. On 13 June, just one week after the Normandy landings, the first of the V-1 flying bombs, to be nicknamed doodlebugs, was launched into England as a retaliation for the successful Allied landings. The V stood for ‘vergeltungswaffe’, or ‘vengeance weapon’ but it was more than mere vengeance, it was reprisal. Between June and October some 9,500 V-1s were launched from the French and Dutch coasts into south-east England, mainly London, initially as many as 100 a day. A doodlebug? Supposedly this came from the V-1’s low hum; it sounded like a flying insect.
Travelling at around 3,000 feet, V-1s were visible. Observers quickly learnt that they would suddenly stop buzzing (there was a small explosive device built into the design to disable the jet engine), and almost immediately go into a near vertical fall. You could both see the bomb flying along, and then the moment at which it began to fall, even its likely location. That was scary. Fighter pilots would attempt to nudge a V-1 and send it spiraling down before it reach any built up area, but that was hazardous and infrequently successful. Barrage balloon would stop some. However, most went on towards London. My mother told me she had been nervous on the few occasions she had seen a V-1, as there was no certainty it would continue past where she was.
Having got used to a new ‘normal’ of flying bombs, there was worse to come. On 8 September, Germany launched two rockets. The first landed in Chiswick, killing three people, the second hit Epping with no casualties. The government was reluctant to reveal there were rockets falling on London, and blamed the explosions on leaking gas pipes. However, as evidence of the attacks was obvious, the public started referring to these rockets as “flying gas pipes”. So British! Not the slapstick and foolish Private Pike in Dad’s Army, but the British self-deprecating humour of the mournfully sarcastic Sargent Wilson, so brilliantly played by John Le Mesurier in that series.
The Germans announced the existence and use of the V-2 on 8 November 1944, and two days later Winston Churchill informed Parliament, and the world that England had been under rocket attack “for the last few weeks”. The V-2 rocket was a technological advance. As ‘Retribution Weapon 2’, the Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the world’s first long-rangeballistic missile. Powered by a liquid propellant rocket engine, it was only visible moments before it hit the ground and exploded. A 2011 BBC documentary revealed the V-2 attacks between November 1944 and March 1945 had probably resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel. Effectively invisible, unable to be stopped by aircraft or balloons, the V-2s ratcheted up the level of fear in London.
They were also more effectively targetted, once the first few rockets had been launched and their trajectories studied. Londonist, part of the Gothamist global network of city sites, published a remarkable map of V-2 rocket strikes (initially in 2009, and last updated in 2018). [i] The great majority fell on the northern, central, eastern and southern parts of London, from Arnos Grove in the north, across to Stratford and Wanstead in the east, and down to Crystal Palace in the south. For a new technology, it was surprisingly accurate, most falling in a tightly defined area, a tribute to the skills of Wernher von Braun, who was later to play a key role in the development of US rocket and space technology.
The years of bombing of London, from the Blitz through to the V-2 attacks, left their mark. Bomb sites were evident for many years after the war, and every so often, even in the 21st Century, an unexploded bomb will be found during engineering and building works somewhere in the metropolitan area. However, while bombing ended, rationing lingered on. Throughout the war, shortages had been as important as rationing. For example, although alcoholic drinks such as wine and whisky were not rationed, all drinks except beer were scarce, and most people kept strict control over their own drinks cabinets! As for beer, it was considered a vital foodstuff, regarded as a morale booster. It was difficult to make, however, as brewers faced a shortage of labour. Not just labour. In addition, they had to work with a scarcity of the imported barley used in the beer-making process. A ban on importing sugar, combined with sharp practice, ensured beer strengths became weaker as brewers watered down supplies. The shortage of labour for jobs in pubs and bars added to the difficulties. It might have been considered “a vital foodstuff”, but all these problems resulted in it not being quite the morale booster hoped for.
As the war progressed, rationing had been extended to other commodities, including clothing, which was rationed on a points system. When it was introduced, on 1 June 1941, no clothing coupons had been issued. At first unused margarine coupons were valid for clothing. The allowance was enough for about one new outfit per year; but as the war progressed, the points were reduced. Outside rationing, there were some new foods that became available. These included such delicacies as whale meat and canned snoek fish (a South African product). Rationed or not, these new foods didn’t capture the British stomach!
The Second World War ended in Europe on 8 May 1945, but rationing continued. The post-war economic climate was austere, huge debts to be repaid, leaving limited resources to expand food production and food imports. Frequent strikes by some workers (most critically dock workers) made things worse. On top of this, a common ration book fraud was keeping the ration books of those who had died and continuing to use them. In 1945 some rationing limits were changed, with reductions in the amounts of bacon, soap and petrol. This was followed by another blow in 1946, with bread rationing introduced It was only in 1948, with the advent of Marshall Plan, that basic petrol rationing was restored, at a third of its previous size, bread came off ration again, and the next year clothes rationing ended. Given the slow rate of progress, growing anger over rationing was exploited by the Conservative Party, helping them win the 1951 General Election.
Like many young people at the time, I had no idea about the challenges rationing caused, although I can clearly recall my mother muttering about how many coupons she needed for one purchase of another. Dad was still smoking cigarettes at that time, and I’m sure she thought he made off with valuable coupons! What I do remember is when sweets and other confectionary items came off rationing in 1953. Many children had yearned for anything sugary, guaranteeing work for dentists for the rest of their lives! Eventually, on 4 July 1954 (US Independence Day!) meat and all other food rationing ended in Britain. All over? The rationing was, but the effects lingered. One example, which many found frustrating, was cheese production remained depressed for decades and households resorted to buying Dutch cheese, and some of the blander French cheeses. The British cheese industry only regained its pe-war size in the 1990s, with the abolition of the Milk Marketing Board (a nice name for a board controlling milk prices).
What can we learn from those days? By and large, the British were determined to make do. They were resilient, and united in the face of an enemy across the English Channel. There were black markets, cheats, and some evidence of the well-off getting advantage. However, it was mostly unity in the face of adversity. While British character was important (as I will comment shortly), so was Winston Churchill. A complex, ambitious, sometimes self-indulgent man from an aristocratic background, he was appointed Prime Minister to lead a national (cross-party) government in May 1940, just two weeks before the Dunkirk evacuation. Germany occupied France, leaving the UK facing Hitler’s forces in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. He remained Prime Minister until 1945. In war, he gave the country the leadership it needed.
His life is a fascinating, a combination of shifting allegiances, unwise decisions, and sometimes aggressive and dictatorial strategies. However, for the five years during the war the unpleasant side of his character could be ignored. He was gritty, pugnacious, argumentative, but above all he was able to embody a war spirit through powerful jingoistic speeches, especially in the middle of 1940 when Germany was planning to continue their advance into England:
“I would say to the House … “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat . We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs—Victory in spite of all terror—Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.”
and
“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”
It is easy to idolize Winston Churchill. He was an outstanding orator at a time when Britain needed one. He was also rude, selfish, domineering, with a patchy track record. Most unionists looked back to 1910 when he called out the army to deal with a strike, but like him or hate him, in a time of war he brought the population together, united and determined. He was the person for the time. Would that the UK and USA had leaders with his vision and inclusiveness today.
However, while leadership is important, it’s only one element in the story. The British weren’t suddenly galvanised into purposeful, dynamic and dedicated defenders by Churchill alone. One part of what made Britain survive bombings and rationing was stoicism. Also key to British character was a distinctive sense of humour, subtle, satirical and self-deprecating, combined with an ability to laugh at themselves. Making jokes about doodlebugs and flying gas pipes, and drawing on a sense of the absurdity of everyday life contributed to building a community with a common purpose. In comparison, while we lack good leadership today, we also lack enough commitment to common purpose, even as we face a devastating pandemic. That’s no joke.
[i] https://londonist.com/2009/01/london_v2_rocket_sitesmapped
