The Blackout

In our story, Renate does not see a stone in the road. It would not have been all that dark in July 194, but it would have been difficult to see and it is likely that she would not have had a battery for her cycle lamp. Notice that the local Policeman was more worried about the family having a door open letting light out than that an “enemy alien” had been out after curfew.        

The Blackout started on 1 September 1939, though was quickly revised in November 1939 because of the many accidents that happened. Accidents included people falling into rivers or being hit by cars.   

As well as streetlights being turned off, road signs and railway signs were removed. People had to put dark black curtains up to their windows. This cost a lot or money and didn’t always work. Sometimes windows were painted black or covered in card. This shut out daylight as well and caused low morale. Firms that had glass roofs had to paint them black. This was very costly.   

The War Papers

I have spent quite a bit of time today cataloguing these facsimile newspapers and seeing where they fit into my timeline. They were published by Peter Way and Marshall Cavendish Part Works. They include considerable detail. The first 25 are simply facsimile papers.  Thereafter, they are grouped together by theme and some extra information is given.  For example 66 is all about Hitler, and includes papers  from 1934 and 1945, the former being about his rise to power and the latter reporting his death.

I’m taking a very quick look at the papers as I’m flicking through. As these contain all of the features of the original newspapers, there are all the usual components – including some spin about some purpose-built flats for rent that would have “reasonable rents and good ARP cover”.

We are used to being told sunset and sunrise times in newspapers these days. In the 1950s and 1960s we had “lighting up times”. War-time papers displayed “black-out” and later “dim-out” times.