With Scarborough being a prohibited area and the threat of invasion on everyone's minds defences were erected very quickly in and around the town. Rolls of barbed wire and posts were put on slipways leading to the sands. Some of the South Cliff gardens were barricaded off as were the Northside Gardens and Promenade. Antitank concrete blocks were erected along the Royal Albert Drive and on the piers. The Castle Holmes were mined as were other areas and this resulted in the death of a boy in the early war years after he had trespassed into this area. Mines were also laid in the entrance to the harbour. Barriers were erected at all entrances to the town - Stepney Road, Scalby Road, Seamer Road near the Football Ground, Spa Bridge, Corner Cafe, Chain Hill, and near the Girls High School to name but a few. These were all guarded as well by soldiers.
All over the town and surrounding district Pill Boxes were erected. Places such as Springhill Lane (which is still there behind the hedge), Flintons Lane (leading to Flintons Farm) up Sandybed, Scalby Mills, Cornelian Bay, Cayton Bay and many more places. The cliffs above Scalby Mills were used for as bomb and rifle ranges by the Home Guard. The pits can still be seen today. Water tanks or static tanks as they were called were constructed at various places in the town for use in case of incendiary bomb attack. The first were placed in St Thomas Street, Westwood, Trafalgar Square and Prince of Wales Terrace opposite the Ramshill Hotel. There was also large dumps of sand for the same purpose situated at strategic places throughout the town.
At the start of the war one was only allowed on the sands at certain points between 6am and 9.30am but on 16 July, 1941 an agreement with the authorities allowed access to the sands between 7.30am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 8pm The beaches were still very dangerous places to be as they were patrolled by armed soldiers. This was proved on the Saturday night of 14 September, 1940 when a 25 year old Farndale woman employed in Scarborough was shot dead when she failed to respond to a sentry's challenge. (Full details see Evening News 16 September, 1940) On the outer harbour wall and at the South Bay Pool there was a machine gun post. At the bottom of Wheatcroft Avenue there was, in great secrecy heavy artillery installed to be used in case of invasion. The harbour was mined and the plunger to detonate them was in a Pill Box disguised as an ice cream kiosk at the bottom of Blands Cliff and manned by the Army.
In 1943 it was decided that the mines would be of more use elsewhere. The NFS Divisional Officer, Mr A. Robinson, invented a method of retrieving them. It consisted of various jets of water which cut through the cable and then after a crater about 10ft deep had been made a diver then went down and fixed a cable which brought the mine to the surface. Three mines were never found and attempts were made in the July of 1946 to try and locate them with echo sounding equipment but they failed to discover where they were.
On 5 February, 1946 the Harbour Commissioners arranged for the large concrete ant invasion blocks and Pill Boxes which had been erected on the piers under the Defence Act of 1939 to be demolished. April, 18 1946 saw the demolition of the first one and the last one to go was in April, 1947 although it was in the 1950s before the Royal Albert Drive ones were demolished. The static tanks which in February, 1944 numbered 50 were slowly being filled up with rubbish and of no use to anybody or anything. In July, 1945 these tanks which held 500 gallons of water were removed by the authorities. The steel ones were dismantled by the NFS from Stockton and taken away to be used on farms. By September, 1944 many of the road blocks came down and slowly Scarborough returned more or less to its peace-time days.
SIRENS.
Red Alert - Attack imminent sirens to be sounded.
White Alert - No enemy activity in area.
Yellow Alert - A precautionary state.
Purple Alert - Enemy activity imminent.
With the declaration of war the sirens in Scarborough out about dinnertime. People rushed onto the Esplanade and Cliff Bridge and peered out to sea in anticipation of the expected invasion. These sirens were situated around the town at such places as Falsgrave School, Hinderwell School, Friarage and Central Schools and Manor Road at the top of Dean Road to name but a few places. Every so often a siren test was carried out. The first test was on 3 December, 1939 and was held at 2pm. Afterwards there were many complaints that they could not be heard in various parts of the town. Again after the test of 5 February, 1940 complaints poured in and attempts were made to improve the system. In April, 1940 the Chief Constable in his report decided that after the complaints the use of the claxon horn on the lighthouse would still be used as a part of the air raid warning. The Falsgrave siren was fitted to Falsgrave School on 2 April, 1940 to improve the system. The first time the air raid siren sounded a proper alert was on the night of 7 June, 1940 when enemy aircraft crossed the coast at several points. It was then sounded nightly after that as German planes flew over the district. It was often the case that it sounded too late or not at all and this was the case in 1941 when it sounded one hour after the blitz had started!! One could tell when it was going to sound as it was said the lights in houses began to flicker.
The local defence volunteers, later to be renamed the Home Guard, were formed in May 1940. They trained on the cliffs above Scalby Mill and used the quarry at Olivers Mount for rifle practice. A typical guard consisted of three seventeen year old and an older man. In the early days their weaponry usually took the form of two twelve bore shotguns and an 1890's rifle. In time they became an efficient fighting force. At 12.30 am on 8th September 1940 they were called out when the message 'invasion imminent' was received. The Home Guard officially ended as a fighting force on 2nd January 1946.
Over this length of coastline, a considerable diversity of structures and earthworks has been encountered, the majority of which were built to resist invasion during 1940-1. The most common structures include pillboxes, beach defence light emplacements, 6-pdr anti-tank gun emplacements, trenches, scaffolding obstacles, barbed wire entanglements, anti-tank walls and cubes. During World War II, the design of such permanent defence works was the responsibility of the War Office's Directorate of Fortifications and Works (DFW). Each design was issued with a type number, the Type-22 and 24 hexagonal pillboxes being the most common varieties. These designs were issued to the various Commander Royal Engineers (CRE) in the regional Commands, who would supervise their construction, whether by soldiers or civilian contractors.
There can be no doubt that the Germans knew just as much about Wearside, Teesside and Humberside. The North-East also merited a mention in Hitler's War Directive No 9, all in all, considering us a prime target. This view is reinforced by an end of report conclusion contained in the Home Security Operations Bulletin No 34 it reads - The attention paid to Hull and the North East, though as yet the scale of attack has been light, is a significant development in an area which has been surprisingly unmolested hitherto. It is too early to say what end these attacks may be meant to serve, but the importance of the area is strongly stressed in German Broadcasts, which have heavily exaggerated the results of the raids.
During the so-called 'Phoney War' there were a lot of tip and run raids, often by single aircraft testing defences or unloading unused bombs. In the summer of 1940 the attack on Britain's industrial cities began and the first major raid on Tyneside took place in broad daylight in the late afternoon of July 2nd 1940. From that moment, for many people, the Phoney War ended, and the Proper War began, in reality much had happened before then, especially off our coasts.
In addition to the warships, the repair and replacement of ships for the Merchant Navy was of great importance, naturally North-East shipyards played a major part in this too.
Briefly the state of play, in the North Sea at the beginning of the war was as follows. The sea off the North East coast came under the Royal Navy's Tyne Sub-Command area which was part of Rosyth Command under Vice Admiral C.G. Ramsay. The other Sub-Commands within the Rosyth Command were Aberdeen and Rosyth. Naval deployment was constantly changing throughout the war, but at the outbreak of war there were eight destroyers attached to Rosyth Command and also the aircraft carrier 'HMS Furious' at Rosyth itself. In July 1940 the cruisers 'HMS Birmingham' and 'HMS York' were stationed at Rosyth and the cruiser 'HMS Coventry' together with twelve destroyers were stationed on the Tyne, ten of these destroyers were part of the escort force. The cruiser 'HMS Newcastle' together with 'HMS Manchester', 'HMS Sheffield' and seven destroyers were stationed on the Humber. The 6th Submarine Flotilla was based at Blyth with their depot ship 'HMS Titania.
