All, maybe I'm missing something so basic it's just passed me by - but where did actual air raid warnings generate out of the RAF command and control system in 1940??? I mean - were they issued/directed by Bentley Priory, or at Group level? Or was it a property of the ongoing liaison with AA Command? Where/who directed what segment of the national siren network should be sounded?
Air Raid Warnings altered as the war went on to respond to the different threats. Air raid warnings remained the responsibility of the Ministry of Home Security during the war years. In the early years of the war, Air Raid Warnings were given from the Fighter Command Operations Room, later this responsibility was decentralized to the Fighter Group but with Fighter Command Ops Room giving warnings to 11 Group area, keeping general supervision and informing Home Security of all warnings and all clears issued. After a notable raid on Norwich and during the "tip and run campaign" local Observer Corps posts could and did give local warning of imminent raid leading to the final change of tasking. In April 1944 initiation of Air Raid Warnings ceased to be Fighter Command responsibility and was transferred to Home Security officals situated in Observer Corps centres. This was to combat the increasing information time lags and the changing threats of V1 and V2. Regards Ross
My recollection of the very first air raid warning of WW2 3rd September 1939 The following morning, a Sunday, I started exploring the novelty of living by the sea (in Hove) and was actually swimming in the sea when the first warning siren sounded, (a false alarm as it happened). I hurriedly dried myself and hastened back to the flat, passing on the way two women standing in the doorway of their house. The pair, probably mother and daughter, were both crying and embracing. With the sublime arrogance of a sixteen year old I called out to them "Don't worry ..... everything's gonna be all right!" They paused in their grief and turned to give me a withering look that left me in no doubt that I knew nothing of the sort of troubles that the world could offer on that day and so I shamefacedly continued homeward where I arrived just in time to listen to the radio and the recorded voice of Chamberlain telling us that war had been declared.
