ALMOST exactly 77 years ago Swindon suffered a bombing raid.

Windows at King William Street School were blown out, a gas main was punctured, there were scattered fires and a house collapsed near Rodbourne Cheney School, trapping its occupants.

The fact that all this happened in early July of 1939 is a clue that it was an exercise rather than the real thing.

It would be two months before Hitler’s invasion of Poland sparked World War Two, but throughout the summer the clouds of conflict were gathering.

Across the country Air Raid Precautions (ARP) wardens staged exercises such as the one which took place in Swindon on the first Saturday in July.

The photographs are eerily reminiscent of images captured during the aftermaths of real air raids in the years to come. One showing wardens tending to a dummy representing an injured child is especially chilling.

We said: “There was a full and spectacular testing out of Swindon’s preparedness on Saturday night in the event of war, to cope with an enemy air raid.

“For this purpose there were two air raids – imaginary, of course – the first being heralded by the sounding of sirens and hooters, which were plainly audible in even the remotest parts of the town and district.

“In order to endow the test with a touch of realism ‘producers’ got to work with coloured lights, detonators, smoke cloud bombs and the like, with which were demonstrated the various catastrophes or incidents calling for attention.

“These ‘producers’ excelled themselves, in at least one case to an unexpected degree, eleven panes of glass in King William Street School being shattered by the force of a ‘bomb.’”

The collapsed house was specially constructed in the Rodbourne Cheney School, bonfires were lit in Headlands Grove and Rodbourne Cheney Road to test firefighters, and a simulated gas main explosion saw crews use breathing apparatus.

Swindon ARP chief Major RB Andrew declared the whole exercise a success.

What nobody who took part could know was that Swindon would largely be spared the sort of raids which turned many other towns and cities into visions of Hell.

Bombs were dropped and there were numerous deaths and injuries, but the feared devastation didn’t materialise.

Some historians believe Nazi strategists decided that Swindon, its Railway Works and its workers should be left as unscathed as possible, the better to be pressed into the service of the Reich following invasion.