As we all rush about in the final weeks before Christmas
looking for last minute bargains or buying the must have Christmas gifts the
kids, this article takes a look back to Christmas 1940 when things were very different.
Christmas 1940
By the end of 1940, 24,000 civilians had been killed in the
Blitz and hundreds of thousands more had been made homeless. In November,
German bombers had carried out particularly fierce raids on Liverpool in the
days leading up to Christmas. The public were now mourning the loss of their
loved ones on the home front and in combat, as well as praying for the 41,000
British soldiers captured on the continent.
In order to avoid the bombs, many families spent some of the
festive period in air-raid shelters and other places of refuge and decked out
their temporary homes with makeshift decorations. Very short Christmas trees,
if you could afford or get one, were in demand because of the height of the
shelters.
Rationing
Assuming that gas or electricity was available, Christmas
dinner would have still been a triumph of ingenuity. Turkey was unaffordable
and most made do with other cuts of meat, which were still expensive. A family
of four's weekly meat ration probably wouldn't even cover the cost of a small
chicken. Some people home-reared chickens or rabbits, much to the shock of
young children who often regarded them as pets. Home-grown vegetables were also
a bonus if you had somewhere to grow them
People would scrimp and save rations, including ham, bacon,
butter, suet and margarine, but tea and sugar rations were increased in the
week before Christmas. Very little fruit was imported and nuts were very
costly. Consequently, cooks had to improvise Christmas cakes and puddings
devoid of dried fruit and marzipan, using instead sponge or other unlikely
ingredients. Alcohol was available but, at extortionate prices.
Presents and gifts
The public were discouraged from giving presents and
encouraged to give as much as they could to the war effort. Almost £10 million
in war bonds was sold in the week before Christmas. Goods were in any case
scarce becoming scarcer as the war wore on but a theme of
air-raid-shelter-friendly presents emerged. Flasks and sleeping bags were in
demand and even 'gas masks' for dolls. Home-made presents were popular too, as
were second-hand ones. For working-class people 'make do and mend' was the norm.
Dads carved sailing ships and dolls' houses, whilst mums knitted with spare
bits of wool and made sweets. Children's gifts were also donated from other
countries and charities. Even Christmas cards contained government propaganda,
messages like "careless talk cost's lives" graced the front of cards.
Men and women on duty
Postmen attempted to deliver millions of letters and parcels
to streets that had been razed by the bombing, whilst many more civilian men
and women were on duty in their roles as ARP wardens, Home Guardsmen,
Observers, fire fighters, ambulance drivers and other crucial occupations.
Travel was discouraged; not just because of fuel rationing, but to keep the
roads and railways free for transporting war goods and returning troops. But despite all of this the ever resourceful
people of Liverpool, in most cases, still managed to celebrate Christmas with
their loved ones.
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| This mock up shows the approximate location of the air raid shelter |
In the meantime terrible damage was being inflicted on the
city, its people and its buildings relentless and sustained German bombing
raids took their toll and whole families were lost to the bombs of the
Luftwaffe. One particularly serious bombing was a raid which caused
what is thought to be Liverpool’s single biggest loss of life during World War
II – and yet, for years, it remained the city’s most overlooked tragedy. Around
200 people are believed to have been killed when a bomb exploded by a shelter
in Blackstock Gardens in Vauxhall on the evening of December 20, 1940. Many
families from tenement blocks in the area were virtually wiped out, while the
raid also claimed the lives of people who had been on their way home from work.
Two packed trams stopped in the area at the time of the bombing to give
passengers the chance to go into the shelter.
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| The remains of Liverpool parish church, Our Lady and St. Nicholas'. 20-21 December 1940 |
Other notable buildings were destroyed in the raids
including the parish church of Our Lady and St Nicholas, ironic when you
consider that Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the
Christian figure of Santa Clause. The
main body of the church was all but totally destroyed leaving only the tower
standing.
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| The scene at Durning Road Technical School following an air attack in November 1940 |
For many of the men, women and children huddled in the
Durning Road shelter in the early hours of November 29, 1940, Christmas was not
to be. They were sheltering in the only refuge they could find from the bombs
raining down from the skies above Liverpool. But their safe haven was soon to
turn into hell on earth. When the sirens first sounded, 300 people from the
Edge Lane community huddled in the basement of the old Junior Instruction
Centre. But by the time the sun came up the following morning, more than half
of them were dead, killed in circumstances so horrific Winston Churchill was
moved to call it at the time the “worst civilian incident of the war”. As they waited anxiously for the all-clear, a
mine attached to a parachute detonated above the building, the downward
pressure of the blast forcing the three-storey college to tumble down upon
them. But the horror did not end there. As furnaces burst, boiling water and
steam scalded those trapped under the rubble, while fires burned many alive.
(source Liverpool Echo)
Despite all the horrors of the war the people of Liverpool
struggled on and many had the best Christmas they could,
in 1941 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited
Liverpool and the surrounding area, he
is quoted as saying, "I see the damage done by the enemy attacks, but I
also see the spirit of an unconquered people."
By Robert F Edwards
