World War 2 Eighty Years On - Friday, September 8th 1939

A cigarette card from the
WD & HO Wills ARP series
published in 1938. 

The next warning came at breakfast time on September 8th again no enemy action.  

An amusing account by Frank Bond gives some indication as to the uncertainty that an alert provoked.             

"On hearing the air raid alarm sounding, I hurried to the A.R.P. post at Burfoots in the Eton Wick Road.  On reporting for duty, fulfilling my task as messenger boy, I was sent on a cycle errand along Common Road.  During the early days of the war one naturally believed that the Germans were definitely coming to attack Eton Wick and undoubtedly all their beastliness including gas would rain down upon us.  Consequently, to cycle along Common Road, I was equipped with all the anti-bomb, anti-gas apparatus available. I expected to see everyone dashing for cover and was quite put out when Mrs Annie Sherman, standing at her Hope Cottage gate, called out to her two young sons, “Come quick, Look at Frank Bond all dressed up like a funny man”.  Hell, I thought, how could we hope to beat the Germans."



This is an extract from Round and About Eton Wick: 1939 - 1945. The book was researched, written and published in 2001 by John Denham.