Civil Defence Corps Equipment
The Corps was supplied with a wide range of equipment as befitted the range of tasks they needed to fulfill. Some of it was extremely dated in terms of origin, indeed some dated from as early as 1914, some equipment was originally supplied to the ARP/Civil Defence during WWII. However, much was developed during the lifetime of the Corps. In the earliest period the Corps had no radiological equipment, the first issue being personal dosimeters and chargers in 1951.
Ambulance
This was the ambulance used by the
Civil Defence Corps from 1965, it was based on a standard Commer
commercial van of the period, the only modifications being the fitting
of stretcher racks and storage for first aid equipment. They had
no sirens, flashing lights or communications equipment. Similar sized
Bedford vans were also used.When the Corps was disbanded the majority were auctioned off, I know of one that became a mobile greengrocer's van and another a baker's van. The latter was still in use over forty years later.
The interior shows an ambulance fully kitted out. The only non-standard items for the period are the blankets, which were standard army grey originally, and one of the tin hats, which is modern. As can be seen the ambulance could accommodate four stretchers, and if the upper pair were raised, eight seated casualties.
A conversion kit was available to convert similar vehicles. It was reckoned that a team of two could convert a similar sized van to an ambulance in about half an hour, by simply drilling and bolting in the stretcher frames.
Ambulance columns were also equipped with control, and communications vehicles, motorcycles for messengers and two officer staff cars. The control and communications vehicles were of the same types as used by the Headquarters Section.
Headquarters Section Operations Vehicle
These
vehicles were intended to be placed in areas where the static operations
bases had been put out of action. They were based upon Fordson Thames
ET6 vans. They could not provide accommodation for a full team. They
were equipped with communications equipment, including a vhf radio which
was in the cab with an extension to the interior, a 10 way magneto
switchboard and field telephones (tele-J or L). Other equipment included
a small generator, the hatch for which you can see just behind the
passenger door, field cable and an A-frame cable laying apparatus.
Radiac equipment included a Contamination Meter and a Meter Radiac
Survey No 1 or 2. The operations vehicle would be co-located with a
signals vehicle.Reconnaissance vehicle
Reconnaissance vehicles were equipped
with radiac instruments and vhf radio, normally manned by a team of two
from the Scientific and Intelligence sub-section of the HQ Section.
Their task was to conduct reconnaissance operations, including
radiological surveys in areas where warden posts either did not exist,
or where they had been knocked out by enemy action. Following the demise
of the Corps, this became the responsibility of the Royal Observer
Corps.Communications
Audible alarms
The gas rattle was one of the longest lived pieces of equipment in use by the Civil Defence Corps. Without modification it had served since the early years of the
trenches
of WWI. It had two uses with the Corps, one of which was the same as in
WWI, namely warning the populace of a gas attack, a role that was would
have also been used in WWII if Germany had used chemical weapons. The
second was to warn of the imminent arrival of fallout. In both cases it
would have been used by members of the Warden Section, either on foot or
on bicycle.Alternatives to the gas rattle were a whistle or a handbell, as had been the case in WWII.A whistle on a white lanyard was part of Corps uniform.
Line Communications.
The normal mode of line communication was the GPO network, however where that failed or when temporary locations were in use this was to be augmented or replaced by field telephone lines laid by HQ Sub-section Signal B units - Field cable Parties.Cable and Cable Laying
Three kinds of cable were used by the Corps:- Cable, assault No 2, was a lightweight single cable. It was intended as a rapid and temporary cable, being used in conjunction with Pins, Earth, Small to provide an earth return circuit, it was simply laid on the ground. The cable was supplied either on small drums or in coils packed in hessian. Cable, assault was used with Apparatus,Cable, Laying No. 10.
- Cable, D.3, Twisted, was supplied until some point in the fifties. It consisted of two single D.3 cables of different colours twisted together. The conductors consisted of a number of steel strands and one or more copper strands. The number of each type of strand differed, but typically seven strands of steel and one of copper.
- Cable, D.10, Twisted, consisted of a twisted pair of cables. Each conductor consisted of four copper and three steel strands, covered with polythene and a thin woven nylon sheathing. This cable was provided either on a cable drum, or in the form of a dispenser coil. The dispenser coil could be used in several ways. It could be clipped to a linesman's webbing using the D-rings provided, it could be placed on the giound and the cable pulled out from the centre, or it could be attached to a vehicle and paid out as the vehicle proceeded. The drum used for D.10, was the Reel, Cable No. 5, which could be used with the Apparatus, Cable Laying, No.11, or with the Bar, Carrying. Lightweight.
Field
Telephones
All telephone instruments used for
line communications had a type letter, thus you will commonly come
across Type 'B', type 'F', type 'L' & Type 'J'. Despite commonly
said, the 'J' does not stand for 'Jungle' meaning an instrument designed
for use in jungle warfare. Civil Defence used the Types F, L & J
together with "D" class cables.
The most common type was the tele J. The J was in a steel case which was immersion proof, with a hinged lid and a carrying strap.
These telephones were all powered either by two Cells, Dry X, or two Cells, Inert S. Both cells were 1.5 volt Leclanché types. The difference being that the inert cell was dry, it was activated by adding tap water.
Switchboard Magneto 10 Way
The Switchboard Magneto 10 Way, was designed for use with field telephone circuits. It could not be connected to standard telephone lines. When fitted to operations vehicles or in buildings they were permanently wired with a bulkhead terminal frame
wired
through to the exterior. If you look at the instrument shown you will
note that there are eleven cables, each was terminated in a jack.
No operator's circuit was included, and a separate telephone set "J" or
"L" had to be used. The leftmost cable is the operator's jack. The
operator's set was connected at the rear of the switchboard. The 'flag'
above the right socket and cable has 'dropped' indicating that someone
is calling. Details of operating procedure can be found in Civil Defence
Handbook No 1 "Line & Wireless Instruction" (downloadable as a pdf
on the Civil Defence Corps documents page).Radio communications
Radio communications was introduced in about 1950/51. The first radios were heavy back-pack type units, which used valves (tubes) and heavy batteries. I don't know who the makers or models were at this time, but they were similar to those used by the police. The batteries then available gave them only a very few hours of operation. By the mid-1960s the use of walkie-talkie type radios had been dropped. Certain mobile units and the HQ Section were equipped with Pye equipment in the Ranger series. The frequencies used were in the range 155-168MHz. Vehicles were fitted with simple 1/4 wave whip antennas, for fixed locations 1/4 wave co-axial choked whips were used.Civil Defence training centres and HQs were equipped with the Carrier Receiver 400A linked to local Carrier Control Points, to receive the so-called 'four minute warning'. Ours was initially sited in the office of the centre, but moved into the main hall, on a shelf next to the bar hatch.
Radiac Equipment
The Corps were issued with the following items of equipment at various times commencing in 1951, personal dosimeters, dosimeter chargers No 1 & Mk2 No 2, Meter Survey Radiac Nos 1 & 2 and the Trainer No1, and the Contamination Meters Mk 1 & Mk 2. Details can be found on the Radiac Equipment page.Personal Protective Equipment
All personnel were meant to be issued
with steel helmets (aka tin hats), although I never actually got one.
Officers and section leaders had white, others were black, with letters
indicating their sections. The only other personal protection
equipment issued were respirators plus gloves and boots and
gaiters to the Rescue and Field Cable personnel. The boots were the
standard issue "ammo boots" with hobnails although we didn't have to do
the army "spit-and-polish" routine as they were work boots, and ordinary
shoes were worn on parade and on other non-working occasions. What the
boots did need was the application of copious amounts of "Dubbin
Protective No1" if you could get hold of it or else you had to buy your
own commercial equivalent, otherwise the boots were neither comfortable
nor completely waterproof! The gaiters came in a variety of colours, if
you were lucky they were black, they could also be white, khaki or Air
Force grey (I got the latter) - it all depended on what stores had
in stock. if they were not black you had to spend hours brushing black
boot polish into them.Respirators
Until
1965, the Civil Defence Corps were issued with modified WWII civilian
duty respirators (left), or for some duties the Service Respirator
(centre) but these were replaced with
Anti-gas clothing
Two
versions of anti-gas clothing were used until about 1964/5, they were
identical to the World War 2 issues. They were the "Heavy" and
"Light" Anti-Gas Outfits. During training I wore a "Light" set,
and this was more than heavy enough when doing mildly strenuous work
(cable laying) for one hour. In reality I should probably have worn the
"Heavy".
