Unseen photos show how home front heroes helped wartime Wolverhampton

Devastating bombing raids were expected, and the prospect that gas might be used, as it had been on the battlefields of the Great War, was an added element of horror.

During the 1930s Winston Churchill was a voice in the wilderness about the perils of the rise of Fascism, but it was the Munich Crisis of September 1938 which took Britain to the brink of war against Germany for the second time in a generation.

Trenches were dug, gas masks were issued, air raid sirens were installed and tested, and air raid precautions were organised as Midlanders prepared themselves for the expected onslaught as an outbreak of war seemed imminent.

And Express & Star photographers were naturally out and about to report on what was happening and in so doing create a pictorial record which captures the flavour of this slice of history.

An infamous international agreement which allowed Hitler to seize German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia averted immediate war and was hailed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as "peace for our time," but quickly it became apparent that appeasement had failed. The Second World War broke out just under a year later.

We've been dipping into our archives of original prints to give an airing to images from the pre-war period and the Blitz which in some cases have not been seen for over 80 years. They record a community gearing up for the unimaginable and practising and preparing for the arrival of death and devastation on the doorstep.

One picture taken on September 15, 1938, shows a gas-proof room being erected in Queen Square in Wolverhampton in the shadow of the statue of Prince Albert. It was to be used to give practical demonstrations. Afterwards it was planned that it would go on tour, giving as many people as possible an opportunity of seeing it.

At the time Wolverhampton was awaiting the arrival of its supply of 150,000 gas masks, which would present a monumental task of distribution, but the respirators also needed to be fitted together before they were distributed.

There were pre-war blackout exercises during which no lights of any description could show from houses, shops, or businesses, and cars could only proceed using sidelights or covered headlights.

Another picture, taken only a few weeks after the war broke out, shows an exercise for Wolverhampton Auxiliary Fire Service when they were scrambled on the Sunday morning of October 8, 1939, to an imaginary fire at the Queen's Picture House in Queen Square.

All 12 divisions within the borough boundaries were given the emergency call to see how fast they would turn out, and triumphantly first on the scene was No. 8 Division.

"Auxiliary pumps from every division were on the scene within six minutes of the arrival of the first pump. This was considered to be very satisfactory, especially having regard to the fact that some of the divisions are considerably farther away from Queen Square than others," the Star reported the next day.

The local clergy mucked in by getting ARP (Air Raid Precautions) training. Among those passing their final test in October 1939 were the Rev F S L Ramsden of Bushbury, the Rev W F P Ellis of St George's, Wolverhampton, the Rev L G Barron of St Luke's, Bilston, the Rev J Hartill of St John's, Wolverhampton, the Rev F Sutton of Heath Town, and the Rev D K Robertson of Wednesfield.

In May 1940, on the eve of the Dunkirk evacuation, it was announced that Wolves' Molineux ground would be the headquarters of an organisation called the Local Defence Volunteers – soon to be renamed the Home Guard – and Wolves' manager Major Frank Buckley had volunteered to serve with the new force. There were, it was noted, "excellent facilities for setting up a miniature rifle range."

The town – of course Wolverhampton did not have city status then – looked after those in the front line of the Blitz. In April 1941 the Chief Constable, Edwin Tilley, officially opened what was believed to be the first fully equipped firewatchers' post in the country. It was in an old stable in Holloway Street, off Bilston Road, and was "snugly furnished with bunks, chairs and tables."

There were over 21,000 local fire guards, operating under street schemes, of whom hundreds were women.

To try to avoid any shortage of water for firefighters during an air raid, huge water tanks were constructed at strategic points. One built in 1943 in North Street, Wolverhampton, held 300,000 gallons. One in Skinner Street held 250,000 gallons. However there was an appeal for locals not to use them as rubbish dumps after, only four days after it was filled, a ton of rubbish was removed from a water tank in Bilston.

In the event Wolverhampton escaped the worst of the Blitz as, although there was some bombing, it was never subjected to a concentrated attack of the sort seen in Coventry and Birmingham.

In October 1944 more than 400 part-time firemen and firewomen of Wolverhampton Division of the National Fire Service took part in a drumhead service at St Peter's, Wolverhampton.

The first of its kind in the West Midlands, it was in the nature of a goodbye ceremony in view of the reductions being made in the personnel of the service, with the mayor, Alderman F S Thompson, taking the salute.

As the bombing threat faded, it was time to thank all those who had served on Wolverhampton's home front.