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Call Me a Cab
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- London and Midlands, UK
Today the husband of a friend of my mother's was round for supper. He's about 87 and was in the army during WW2 though by chance he was always stationed in England and never actually fighting on the continent. He told us an interesting story tonight.
In 1940 he frequently went to and from London due to the nature of the jobs he was given (usually as a messenger I infer from what he said). He was walking through a square in London when a senior officer at the other end shouted "run for your life". He began to shuffle away, but the officer repeated "run for your life". He began to go faster but the officer kept shouting it, so he realised that something must have been wrong. He ran to the officer as fast as he could, who gave him a very small scrap of paper, telling him to give it to the CO as fast as possible and to show it to nobody else and telling him the importance of it.
He left the officer and the square towards the CO, but wondered what made the paper so important. Out of curiousity he turned it over to see what was written on it and it read "expect gas attack tonight". He gave it to the CO eventually and that was the last he heard of it. He was naturally afraid but had nowhere to go so he eventually sheltered in a nearby stable he knew of which was half covered by earth in the same was as a bomb shelter.
It wasn't until four years ago that he found out what had happened in the end. By some chance he came across an evening paper which contained an article about the planned gas attack. Two cables (one British, one French) had come on that day warning of a gas attack. Without hesitating the RAF had promptly bombed the air base it was to come from in France to the ground, killing everyone there.
We can only guess the level of devastation had there been a gas attack in London. Has anyone else ever heard of this planned gas attack? The gentleman couldn't remember which day it was, but we worked out that is must have been 1940.
In 1940 he frequently went to and from London due to the nature of the jobs he was given (usually as a messenger I infer from what he said). He was walking through a square in London when a senior officer at the other end shouted "run for your life". He began to shuffle away, but the officer repeated "run for your life". He began to go faster but the officer kept shouting it, so he realised that something must have been wrong. He ran to the officer as fast as he could, who gave him a very small scrap of paper, telling him to give it to the CO as fast as possible and to show it to nobody else and telling him the importance of it.
He left the officer and the square towards the CO, but wondered what made the paper so important. Out of curiousity he turned it over to see what was written on it and it read "expect gas attack tonight". He gave it to the CO eventually and that was the last he heard of it. He was naturally afraid but had nowhere to go so he eventually sheltered in a nearby stable he knew of which was half covered by earth in the same was as a bomb shelter.
It wasn't until four years ago that he found out what had happened in the end. By some chance he came across an evening paper which contained an article about the planned gas attack. Two cables (one British, one French) had come on that day warning of a gas attack. Without hesitating the RAF had promptly bombed the air base it was to come from in France to the ground, killing everyone there.
We can only guess the level of devastation had there been a gas attack in London. Has anyone else ever heard of this planned gas attack? The gentleman couldn't remember which day it was, but we worked out that is must have been 1940.
