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Image © Trinity Mirror. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Column 7 of page 5 of this issue of the Western Mail has an address from the chief ARP warden for Cardiff in which he explains "the need for the decentralisation and dispersal of personnel, equipment, stocks, appliances, and first-aid stores, and arrangements had been made for each area in the city to be as independent as possible of other districts".
The raid on the night of 2 January 1941 (described at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11609989, accessed 5/3/17) saw more than 150 killed, 427 injured, and nearly 350 homes were destroyed or had to be demolished. Chapels and the knave of Llandaff Cathedral were also damaged. The worst hit areas were Grangetown and Riverside.
"After World War One, military experts predicted that in any future war there would be large-scale bombing of the British civilian population, resulting in huge casualties. In April 1937, an Air Raid Wardens' Service was created. By the middle of 1938 about 200,000 people were involved, with another half a million enrolling during the Munich Crisis of September 1938. By the outbreak of war there were more than 1.5 million in the ARP (Air Raid Precautions), or Civil Defence as it was later re-named." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6651425.shtml, accessed 19/2/17)
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