Air Raid Sirens WWII

[abn deuce]

While looking for other things came across the topic on youtube of Air Raid sirens and thought it a topic for discusion , since it was such a part of life in Britain all through WWII .

 

[Tony B]

Not only WW2. There were similar sirens mounted on public buildings up to the late 1980's. That being the date I know the siren was removed from St Mary Cray Police station. I do remember the one on my primary school being tested once a year up to 1967 when I left.

[N.O.S.]

They became 1950's SUNAMI SIRENS - a flood defence early warning system all along the east coast.

[chevpol]

also kept in case the ruskies decided to install new suns over us

 

Mark

[woa2]

Not only WW2. There were similar sirens mounted on public buildings up to the late 1980's. That being the date I know the siren was removed from St Mary Cray Police station. I do remember the one on my primary school being tested once a year up to 1967 when I left.

 

There was one on the building next to my Primary school in Reading and I can remember this being tested in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

 

I did see one of these sirens in the 1970s at a Council yard. I thought of getting it until I discovered that it weighed a couple of hundredweight.

[abn deuce]

Well then you could find a hand powered unit those are very portable or if you enjoy working with small engines I ve got the perfect little noise maker for you , check this one out . ps I ve no idea where you could get one of these or what make , model it is .

 

[abn deuce]

A related bit from Vera Lynn 1941 "When they sound the the Last All Clear " care of youtube

 

[cpltomo]

Not bad but this is a air raid siren

 

iirc you can not stand infront of it when its going for about 200 foot

[skeggy]

Hi, Regarding the Air Raid sirens, They have only just this year stopped using them here in Lincolnshire,Most Fire stations had them, And some were mounted atop telegraph poles, They were used for Flood warnings.

 

Cheers

Skeggy.

[gritineye]

A chap I know managed to land the contract for removing redundant sirens from around the south east a few years ago, just needed a Hyab truck, and a fitter and a sparky. Was quite lucrative, poles went on ebay, sirens and cable scrapped for perks.

 

Apparently they all had a heater coil round them to avoid freezing, these where permanently on and there was no meter, just connected straight to the power lines.

 

One was fixed to a pole next to a small 50s style industrial estate, and when his chaps disconnected the assorted wires some very excited people started shouting "Oi you've cut off the power to the whole estate!"

 

Seems some crafty landlord had spliced into the same connection since the 50s, bet he had his own meters in the industrial units though........

[AlienFTM]

Not bad but this is a air raid siren

 

iirc you can not stand infront of it when its going for about 200 foot

 

Off-topic. Pull up a sandbag.

 

About 1979, 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars held an Old Comrades Weekend in Paderborn. I was invited to set up a PA set overlooking the sports field where various potted sports were to be held. I was invited to pipe music through the system. My choice of music. I really didn't think Rock and Metal would go down terribly well so I dragged out a few of my older cassettes (anyone remember cassettes?). I simply held the mike to my ghetto blaster and music boomed out over the sports field.

 

But there was a catch. The PTI Warrant Officer was timekeeper on the sports and controlling a handful of games at once, if not actively refereeing them. He asked me if I could call time on all games simultaneously. I explained to him how feedback worked and we agreed that that would stop all games simultaneously.

 

So come the afternoon, popular music booming over the barracks, PTI tips me the wink, mike gets buried inside the speaker and it all goes off. Result. Every 10 minutes of whatever and the games all stopped without question. Except on one occasion a very heavily-pregnant wife-of stopped in front of the four tonner I was operating from. I pointed out what I was about to do to give her a chance to move before I induced her baby on the spot.

 

End of the sports afternoon and I simply secured the four tonner to return the PA system on the Monday and I walked the couple of miles into town to my usual haunt (and beer tab).

 

I greeted the landlord whose reply was, "There has been an awful noise from up your way all afternoon. Any idea who or what it was?" As usual I denied all knowledge.

[paul connor]

And the relevence to Air Raid sirens was?

[N.O.S.]

Loud noise - feedback doing same job as the siren close-up maybe? (As in you wouldn't want to be close to the speaker).

Now't wrong with the occasional SANDBAG moment :-)

Edited April 14, 2010 by N.O.S.

[ruxy]

The WW2 air raid siren that I know of that still worked for its living was on the machine shop roof at British Railways Workshops Shildon. For a bit of fun the foreman electrician ran it up to speed at Whit hols 1964 for the first time since the end of the war. He then wired it in to a timer and it was fired up for 10 min prior to the start of every working shift until the works closure 1984.

[ruxy]

PS. Sorry - that should read started up Whit hols 1966

[abn deuce]

As others have said some of these sirens are still in use .While not the same style as heard and seen in the above posts in My town they use simular sirens to summon the Volunteer fire department for fires short blast , or the ambulance / resque squad for crashes long blast and lastly for tornado warning non-stop I believe since I ve yet thankfully to experiance that .

The City of Omaha tests their tornado siren monthly April through October.So these units that were intended for Civil Defence in time of war have been put to other important uses in peace .

[ashley]

Hi all,

i remember during my time in Germany all the barracks /camps/ schools still used the origonal german sirens fitted to the tops of buildings (like large mushrooms on thin stalks) a supposedly fire drill (actuall a warning of Russian invasion) every third Wednesday of the month.

As there were seveal establishments in each town (in our area at least three others in a couple of miles radius) they all seem to run in succesion of each otheri.e. as one finished ...one started up, very erie.

 

Ashley

[Foxtrot 8]

I believe it was a government directive that saw all the UK air raid sirens removed from their lofty perches. I knew of four around Oxford (near where I live) all gone now. However, there is still one up under the eaves of Bampton town hall. Bampton is a small village in Oxfordshire where some of the outside filming for the Downton Abbey TV series takes place, ask the wife !

(I hope this doesn't sound the death knell for this now rare piece of history.)

I live about a mile from what was RAF Abingdon, now an army camp, and every Friday at 10-00 hrs precisely the siren was tested for a few minutes. It sounded great, and was very evocative, especially the all clear signal. It doesn't seem to happen now though. Shame. Anyone know of any others ?

[gritineye]

[Tony B]

I rember the one at Fort Halstead sounded every Sunday just before 12 am. Pub opening signal! The old Police Station in St Mary Cray had one on the roof for years, even after the station closed and my old Boss took it over for offices. It was only removed about 6 or 7 years ago.

[cosrec]

My mother in law had the local post office in the village where i lived . Piped in to the actual office was a loud speaker system that was suposed to sound an three minute warning alarm in case of nuclear attack . Once a year the post office was closed around dinner time while the system was tested and a message sent. I never heard the message but was told by the mother in law it wasnt interesting Basically tell everone to stay inside. In the Garage of the post office was a large airaid siren but it had a handle on to wind it . the idea was in the event of an attack somebody was to listen to the message then run out pull this siren out side on a trolly and wind the handle on the siren. The early 80s mother in law was coming up for retirement and i was approached by local bobby to see if would be willing to take on responsability of looking after the siren. i said yes and was asked to fill in a very detailed form on my back ground but nothing further happened. Today have asked M in L what happened to siren it "was collect by an army lorry"

Edited November 27, 2011 by cosrec

[Nick Johns]

I believe it was a government directive that saw all the UK air raid sirens removed from their lofty perches. . Anyone know of any others ?

There is an air raid siren still in place up on the railway bridge beside Waterloo station in London

Edited December 1, 2011 by Nick Johns

[boomboom]

I have one of them Air Raid Sirens and just the odd time we wire it up to the mains and let her go and beleive me it is LOUD

 

boomboom

[Tony B]

My son has just come across a Cockrel, that sounds just like an air raid siren. Bit corny really.

[ferrettkitt]

I used to remember the siren being tested in Ashton Village in Sale we lived about two miles away and we could hear it very clearly. I've just had a look on google maps/street view and the siren has gone when I don't know. Always sounded odd hearing it when I was a lad

Edited December 1, 2011 by ferrettkitt
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