Documents

This collection consists of five documents on Collective Protection probably produced by the “civil defense” type authorities in Montgomery, Alabama, and Birmingham, Alabama, shortly after the United States entered World War II. A comment in one of the documents which helps date these articles, states that “Recent experience in England has shown that air raid casualties among the civilian population are in almost direct proportions to the extent to which the people fail to take cover and expose themselves during air attacks.” Another states, “Based on the President’s directives, there was established the ‘FBI Law Enforcement Officers Mobilization Plan for National Defense,’ which has been in operation many months.”

These documents cover: collective protection (home protection, types of shelters, gas-proofing and gas masks, fire precautions, and lighting restrictions); the duties of emergency auxiliary police officers (including what buildings and industries will probably be the most likely to be attacked by bombing raids or sabotage, looting during black-out periods, fires due to incendiary bombs, etc.); types of espionage (commercial, industrial, agricultural, labor, financial, utility, military, and diplomatic) and the types of espionage agents; war gases (the types of gases and their effects); and lighting restrictions and blackouts.