The Rogerstone Directory - History Articles

Rogerstone During the Second World War 1939 –1945

The second world war was started on a Sunday morning at 11 o’clock with a wireless broadcast by the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. It was the 3rd September 1939 and it was a lovely late summer morning when most of the population would have been in Church or taking a walk in the countryside which was just about the only alternative.

It came as no surprise to us all, in fact most people had accepted it as being inevitable.

The church bells were silenced, to be used only as a warning if an invasion was imminent, and they were not heard again for a number of years. The street lights were turned off and all domestic lighting blacked out by whatever means available. Narrow strips of paper were glued to the windows to prevent broken glass from flying about in the event of a bomb exploding nearby.

Our village, as it was then, was placed as an area suitable for the reception of evacuees from more industrial areas and a number arrived one Sunday afternoon on a green coloured train which turned out to be from the Southern Railway. It contained children from the London area and they were placed in the St John’s Church Hall and the Free Library for reception and allocation to local families.

Then came the Battle of Britain which took place in a period lasting from about June to September 1940. The battle did not affect Rogerstone very much and only a few small incidents were experienced during that time.

The civilian services were mobilised and trained under the organisation generally known as Air Raid Precautions A.R.P. and Auxiliary Fire Service A.F.S.. The A.R.P. included Fire Watchers, who were on duty during alerts, Street Wardens, who controlled blackout arrangements and accounted for the residents in the event of an incident, and the Rescue workers, who came into their own only after an incident actually happened. The A.F.S. acted very much as help for the regular fire brigade, which in the case of Rogerstone was stationed in Newport.

Shelters were built, rescue centres created and, eventually, a British Restaurant set up in the Free Library where one could obtain a plain meal at a reasonable price.
The main factories were painted in camouflage colours and we awaited anything the enemy could throw at us. At the same time the village was militarised in a defensive way to protect the industrial sites and the huge railway marshalling yard which had existed in Rogerstone since the 1920s.

The Military presence came in two forms. The first was the Regular Army with detachments of the Royal Artillery and the second three units of the Local Defence Volunteers later to be known as the Home Guard.

The Regular Army set up a large battery of anti-aircraft guns at Mount Pleasant also known as the Great Oak site. This occupied about three fields on the right hand side of Groes Road just to the north of the canal. On the other side of the road was an R.D.F. or Radar Establishment which was supposed to be secret and consisted of a huge sheet of wire netting suspended on a great number of upright poles all over the field

There were five small sites which housed light anti-aircraft guns each complete with living and mess room accommodation as follows:
The welfare grounds, Ty-du, alongside the tennis courts.
In a field on the Rhiwderin side of the Ebbw river.
Alongside the old fire station then used by the A.F.S. next to the Oak Tree pub.
In a field alongside the Myrtle pub on Tregwilyn Road.
In a field above the Cefn wood near the old reservoir.

A small search light and aircraft spotting unit was situated off Cwm lane near the access road to the Ynys-y-fro reservoir where today is a car park for the Fourteen Locks Leisure Facility.
A smoke screen was created by igniting crude oil in the canisters with chimneys which were situated along roads and footpaths all around the major industries. These may have been an effective measure to prevent attack but caused some distress to the local inhabitants by the volumes of noxious fumes emitted.

The Home Guard were recruited from three sources, the first being local men of mature age generally and included some veterans of the Boer War and first world war periods. Then there were some much younger men too young for service and some who were in reserved occupations. Some of the men were detached and posted to the Heavy Ack Ack battery to help the regulars. Other Home Guard units were formed at the Aluminium works and they had a Drill Hall purpose built near the sight of the ancient Rogerstone Castle. This building remains on site today. The works platoon were mainly infantry trained but there was one anti-aircraft machine gun placed on top of the viaduct near the Rogerstone Hotel (British Raj)

The A.R.P. had wardens posts around the district. The warning of an alert came in the form of a siren with an oscillating sound. On occasions several alerts were sounded in one night, but very often it was due to aircraft passing over to raid places like Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and even Belfast from their bases in France. The sounding of the ‘All Clear’ was by means of the same siren but using a continuous steady sound. This was often accompanied by the sound of lavatories being flushed and then a discussion, weather permitting, outside about who may or who may not have “copped it” that night. Most houses had some form of shelter such as the ‘Anderson’ in the garden, the ‘Morrison’ in the kitchen, a D.I.Y. type or everyone’s favourite ‘Under the Stairs’. Brick shelters were built in the school yard but most children either ran home or to a safe house within easy reach during a raid so as to minimise casualties.

The A.F.S. was based in the original fire station next to the Oak Tree pub. It had been used as a builders store for some time since the disbandment of our village fire brigade some years before. The A.F.S. was equipped with an old American car which pulled a trailer fire pump.

This account is based on my personal recollections of the conflict as it affected Rogerstone
Vernon Morgan (A member of the Rogerstone Local History Society).

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