Memo dated 12th June 1940 re Armed Guarding of Floodgates. Original Document: LT Archives
The London Underground played a vital economic role in the
Second World War. It was central to maintaining
a functioning capital city. Its economic
and social importance remains undiminished today. But London exists because of the River
Thames. The risk of flooding dominated
emergency planning in the lead up to war and a number of floodgates were
installed to protect tube tunnels and listening devices placed in the river to
monitor for unexploded bombs. Quite a
bit has been written about this but very little has been done about attempts to
protect the underground infrastructure and the peculiar demands of policing the
London Transport network in wartime.
At a recent exhibition at the London Transport Museum a memo
(above) from Evan Evans, the Operating Manager (Railways) was put on
display. It hints at a treasure trove of
documents relating to matters regarding the protection and the policing of the
network. The memo is a set of
instructions for armed guarding of floodgates and is dated 12th June
1940. There was clearly a concern that
floodgates and other locations could be the target for sabotage attacks by Nazi
agents. It is not obvious which station
or stations are subject to these instructions or whether they were issued in
response to a specific threat.
The instructions are directed at the Station Master and
requires him to provide a member of staff to act as floodgate guard. The guard was to be equipped with a .38 Wembley
Revolver that would be kept loaded and worn on a belt. The guard was to be instructed to shoot saboteurs
etc only as a last resort and was to attempt to maim them rather than kill them
if possible. This was a big ask and one
that is not seen in the modern use of police firearms.
Weapons were in short supply. It was acknowledged that there was a need for
the revolver to be cleaned each day but this was to be done in situ and as
quickly as possible.
These guards were members of railway staff. The Memo does not suggest that they were
necessarily volunteers but the Board employed many men with firearms experience
from the Great War. They were not police officers, who were probably required
for more public facing duties or more sensitive locations. However, should the gun be fire for any
reason, a report to the Superintendent LPTB Police was required. Not quite the PIP and PIM process that is now
in place, but Britain was involved in a war for survival and things had to be
kept simple.
Each day a senior police officer from the LPTB would inspect
the weapons. Note the weapons were to be
inspected, not the men.
When we were re-introducing firearms to the BTP in 2011/12
there were frequent comments that this was a first for the Force. This was not true of course, except insofar
as BTP are probably the only Force ever to have given up firearms (for good
reasons at the time) only to re-introduce them.
There could be a time when BTP
returns to being a force without firearms.
In the meantime as we study the history of RDC policing we come across occasions where both police
and, as here, others have access to firearms to protect the national
infrastructure.
This memo is a hint at other resources that may be
available. The BTPHG have a few bits on
wartime policing of the underground and a lot more probably sits in the LT and
National Archives. There may be enough
here for a book, or at least an extended article. It would make interesting reading.
02 Feb 2022
Comments
Post a Comment