Birmingham could not have coped without the Civil Defenders those brave bunch of people who not only did there own job but turned their hand to where it was needed, first aid men doing rescue work and rescue men treating casualties before first aid parties arrived. From one depot alone over one hundred services were called out, sixteen first aid parties, fifty ambulances, forty-two rescue squads, and many cars for sitting cases. During the Blitz eleven thousand wardens were on duty nearly every night.
Their mortality rate was over three times as high as that of the general population, a typical index of what the civil defence services consciously faced. Of the women in the services, their colleagues spoke enthusiastically. A rescue party leader said of the girls waiting in the ambulance stations for a call; "I used to see them just sitting there doing their nails, and I used to say to myself, you wait till the bombs fall, my girls, and you'll think very different". "And in the middle of the blitz I went in to fetch one of them, and I thought now well see, and there they all was, just sitting there doing their nails".
If Birmingham, like every other big city, needed help and reinforcement to fight the actual raids, it coped with their after-effects single-handed, disposing of its own homeless, and tackling its own repair work. The spirit of Joseph Chamberlain lived on to fight the Nazis. The city's well managed gas, electricity, transport and water undertakings, his legacies, showed themselves more than a match for the considerable damage the bombs inflicted. Once four-fifths of the city was without mains water but it was for a very short time. The great corporation housing estates, again, played a crucial part in the work of rehousing the homeless, many of whom were billeted on the city's own tenants.
But not all the homeless needed the help of the corporation estates, and some had their own ideas about how to make use of them. One wintry day on the morning after, a soldiers wife deposited four well-scrubbed children at an estates department office, which existed to arrange billeting and rehousing. She asked if the children might stay awhile as the roof of her house had collapsed, and hurried off without waiting for advice or an answer. Hours passed. At lunchtime no sign of Mother, and food was shared round by the staff. The weather got worse. At 5 p.m. still no Mother and no murmur. from the exemplary quartet. Eventually, the soldier's wife appeared, wet but in triumph. "Thank you very much, the children and me will be staying at Grannies to night and Ive found another house to go to to-morrow". "Goodnight".
Birmingham was the home of medium sized metal industries, all then adapted to war uses. Their factories and workshops were scattered among houses and behind stores higgledy-piggledy about the city. They had their A.R.P. squads, works fire brigades and later there Fire Guards. They had their share of bombs, too. Here is a plain tale of what happened to a group of such plants working in association on contracts for the Navy, Army and R.A.F. They are not typical, in that they suffered an altogether exceptional number of hits, but their story throws some light on the way other war factories in all parts of the country were dealing with the bombing problem.
One works lost most of its floor space and roof by fire, tools and jobs were transferred to other buildings. The whole of the administrative offices, office machinery and furniture was destroyed. Records had been duplicated as a precaution second-hand furniture, typewriters and adding machines were installed and the staff back to work within three days in space cleared from an allied assembly shop. Directors, executive staff, typists, office boys all sat in one large space without partition. It made-concentration harder but communication easier it saved time, and the firm later decided not to change it for the duration.
Another works was struck by high explosive bombs and the roof widely damaged. A small piece of plant was out of action for a few weeks while the roof over it was repaired its work was done elsewhere. A third works was struck by high explosive which did a good deal of local damage to the roof without interrupting production. A fire put some plant out of action and led to the adoption of a different process which turned out to be more satisfactory.
A fourth works was hit by three bombs on the same night. Production was interrupted in various sections for an average of about three weeks, some of the work being transferred elsewhere for a time. Another plant, in a large tool room, was damaged by high explosive, fire, and the water used to quench it. It was hit again next night by two bombs, which did some blast damage and started a fire. Soon afterwards two more bombs and some incendiaries again destroyed roofing and started fires. This chapter of injuries stopped half the work of the plant for some weeks. The remaining men carried on for two months under the open sky till the roof was repaired, merely covering their machines with tarpaulin when it rained, and greasing their tools to stop the rust
A few months after the last of its misadventures, the works in this group were able to lay plans for an expansion of 50 per cent, in their combined businesses.
Such was the grit and determination of the People of Brum
