Being a Policewoman during the war

Being a Policewoman during the War

In 1941, I (Elizabeth Baxter) was working in the offices of the Imperial Chemical Industries in Billingham. Many employees were being evacuated to offices a little further away for safety but I joined the Durham County Constabulary who were recruiting women to join the Force as many of the policemen had joined H.M. services.

I did my training in Preston, Lancashire where we had to learn all the Emergency regulations concerned with the law, aircraft recognition, powers of arrest, judo, and firearm drill. At the firing range, we were given a .44 revolver and holster, and had to remove the gun from the holster, aim and fire within a few seconds. I didn’t realise how heavy this revolver was until I brought it out of the holster. My hand shook with the unexpected weight, but thankfully it was not loaded, otherwise I would have shot every one in the room whilst trying to aim. Luckily I never had to use it while on duty. After training I was stationed in a sub-division which was near the ICI, Billingham, Co. Durham.

My uniform was a white shirt, black tie, navy blue jacket and skirt,(trousers were not worn at this time by women officers), black stockings and black shoes. The hat was a soft topped peaked cap, with the Durham Constabulary badge in front. And in the winter we had a heavy navy blue overcoat. We carried with us, the black notebook which had to be kept up to the minute, and was liable to be inspected at any time. We also carried a whistle, a baton, a tin helmet and a gas mask.

Another W.A.P.C (Women’s Auxiliary Police Constable which later was changed to W.P.C.), and I, being the first two policewomen working in the area, caused people to stare and comment as we walked on the beat. We went out on the beat alone and when we had an incident to deal with we had to deal with it alone and persuade criminals to walk to the station once we made an arrest. However if we had needed help we could summon other officers by blowing the whistle. We worked on shifts, either 6 am.- 2 pm., or 2 pm.-10 pm., and one day a week 9.am-5pm. We had to be always available to go on duty in an emergency so on our one day a week off if we wanted to go out of the town we had to ask permission.

I and the other WPC worked a lot of our time operating the switchboard, taking emergency calls and passing on the air-raid warnings to the other emergency services. so I always knew when an air raid was imminent. The air raid warnings were coded. ‘Yellow’ was the first warning and the sirens were sounded, ‘Red’ was the next stage as the planes got closer and ‘Black’ was when the planes were overhead. ‘Green’ was the signal that the air raid was over and the ‘all-clear’ siren was sounded.
We also went out on the ‘beat’ and attended accidents, inquests, post mortems, and the courts when we had arrested anyone. Sometimes, sadly, we had to go and tell families the bad news that someone had been killed in action.

There were stoves all around the streets which were filled with some rags and paraffin. When we received the ‘yellow’ warning of an air raid, these were set alight by soldiers, causing a smoke screen over the town, so the Chemical industry was not clearly visible to aircraft. If I was on the beat when the smoke screens were operating, I had to cover my mouth and nose as it was difficult to breathe, and it was hard to see.

The first arrest I made was five boys who had broken into a sports club and caused damage. When interviewing them they refused to give their correct addresses, so we could contact their parents.
But when I asked who lived next door to them they answered truthfully and I was able to establish their addresses. At Court when waiting for the case to be called, I heard one boy tell his Dad he was scared. To my surprise the ‘Dad’ said, “There’s nothing to be scared of, the Magistrates are a lot of old women and will just tell you to behave”. I thought this advice would encourage the lad to ignore the court and get into trouble whenever he wanted.
Another time I arrested a man in his thirties, who had been going into his Father’s house and stealing things to sell for money. At Court he was fined, but when he saw me on the beat some time later, he shook my hand and said “thank you very much. You did me a good turn, I was a fool and Dad and I are once again friends”. Another incident that stands out in my memory was when I was working in the office one night a very big tall man came in the office saying his wife was trying to kill him with a big ‘gulley’ which according to him was a very large knife.
When I interviewed his wife later, she was a very small, thin lady, with a quick temper. But no murder took place and they continued to live together.
We also turned out on duty extra to our regular shift, if there was a night air-raid, which was pretty often. I remember very clearly once, watching a ‘dog fight’, caught in the searchlight beams, between a Spitfire and a German plane. I was willing the Spitfire to win, but when I saw the German plane go down, my thoughts were, ‘It is still some Mother’s son’, and I realised how cruel a war is.

On one occasion I was sent to London with a colleague, to bring back a female prisoner. We had to report to Bowe Street Police Station .
At the time the ‘buzz bombs’ were dropping continually in London, day and night. We were given accommodation in a Police Hostel for the night, and were told, five policewomen had been killed a few nights previously while they were fire-watching on the roof. We went to bed and weren’t surprised when about an hour later, the house was shaking and there was a terrific rumbling noise. I got up and started to put clothes on when it stopped and everything went quiet. In fact the sirens didn’t even go off. When we asked about it next morning, we were told, it had been the tube train in the underground under the hostel.
That night in London was the first night they had no raids, either by bombing or buzz bombs,for months.
But to see the devastation already caused was terrible. The next morning we collected our prisoner and returned to Billingham.

We had our share of bombs in Billingham, including raids with incendiary bombs. Every Householder had a bucket of water and a bucket of sand outside their doors, and when incendiary bombs were dropped, they had to be picked up and dropped into one of the buckets or have sand poured over them before they burst into flames.

There were important Chemical Industries at Billingham (town on the river Tees)which were heavily camouflaged and there were shipyards which needed protecting. So there were decoy ships at the mouth of the river Tees. These were bombed quite often but it did mean that as the German planes were flying over the real ships further up the river and nearer the town they had already discharged most of their bombs on the decoys. We also had a few sections of the R.A.F. Barrage Balloon Units and as enemy planes got closer the balloons were raised higher. It gave us some idea of when the enemy planes were overhead or very near. There was a barrage balloon Unit opposite the Police Station. It looked to be very hard work manipulating those balloons.

Towards the end of the war, I was in the office one morning and a German Heinkel plane was flying past the windows, it was flying low enough for me to be able to see the pilot and it sounded heavy with bombs. I turned to point this out to the duty Sergeant but I couldn’t see him, but then I saw him rising up from the floor behind the desk after the plane had passed us over. I was so interested in watching where it was going that I forgot to follow procedure and take cover. We had had no warning of this plane, which surprised us and it had somehow managed to fly under the balloons, I quickly sent the warning ‘black’ out and expected the bomb to be dropped any minute. I was worried as he was heading towards my home and family, however we learned he had dropped the bomb over some waste ground, for which we were very grateful.

I enjoyed working as a Policewoman, it was challenging but a great experience and during the war everybody seemed willing to help each other and I enjoyed being able to help people. I made friends with another WPC during the war and we are still friends today.

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