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The Smoke Screen

During the war, my hometown of Luton became a regular target for the Luftwaffe. We were the home of Vauxhall that produced Churchill tanks and Bedford lorries; Commer that also built army vehicles and the SKF factory producing ball bearings and ball races. Besides these there were many other vital component factories.
Then somebody at a high level came up with the idea of enveloping the whole town in a smoke screen, one that would make it impossible for the German bombers to home in on their targets. It sounded good in theory, but proved to be a little too successful in practice.
To put the scheme into practice, every household in town was issued with a supply of wooden blocks. These blocks consisted of wood chips soaked in bitumen or a similar oily substance and bound together with tar into the size of a house brick. In those days, most homes were heated by an open fireplace using coal as fuel. These fires were a big source of pollution, giving rise to the notorious smog of that era.
Anyway, the idea was for all households to start burning these tar blocks on a certain evening, keeping their fires burning until all the blocks had been consumed. They burned quite well, giving off dense, black smoke.
The following morning, we all awoke to a big problem. It had been a very calm night; no breeze at all. To add to this there was a temperature inversion, which trapped the smoke at ground level. It could not escape from the Chiltern valley!
Visibility was down to zero; the common expression of ‘not able to see your hand in front of your face’ had finally came true.
It was absolutely impossible for us to find our way to school. All traffic came to a standstill, including the hundreds of buses that would normally shuttle the workers to the factories. The acrid smoke caused breathing and chest problems amongst the population, compounding the problem. Asthmatics in particular suffered badly. People were advised to remain indoors, keeping doors and windows closed. Essential workers had to wear their gasmasks as protection whilst carrying out their duties.
It was three days before things returned to normal. We were advised by radio that under no circumstances were any more of the blocks to be burnt, but they should be disposed off in the dustbin. The whole exercise had been a dismal failure. We had certainly not had any air raids during this period, but neither had there been much progress with the manufacture of goods required for the war effort. The schools had also been forced to close for three days. The whole idea had proved to be a disaster.
Excalibur

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