Danish Civil Defence ( Denmark Civil Defence )

Danish Civil Defence

In this room you find
information in text and pictures on the history of the Danish Civil Defence
during the period 1938 – 1992.
Furthermore uniforms used
during 2. World War and during the period 1950 – 1970 are shown.
In the small exhibition
case you find badges of rank and emblems.






However, after the start
of the “cold war” during the period 1950-89 a new strong Civil Defence was
established. That included building of air-raid shelters and training of
auxiliary personal including conscripts. Also lots of fire fighting and rescue
equipment was purchased.
As an example the Aalborg
Civil Defence in 1990 had a strength of 4000 conscripts, volunteers and other
personnel, 75 motor fire-engines, and 150 km of fire hoses.

Because of the rising threat of a major war in Europe The Danish government decided in 1938 to
establish a civil preparedness organization to protect the population in case of
air attacks.
An organization by the name of National Civil Defence was made responsible for establishing air warning sirens, building air-raid shelters, and training personal as firemen and rescue
teams.

The National Civil Defence was a humanitarian and non-military organization.
It was a large and difficult task because of lack of experience in these matters. After the
outbreak of 2. World War in 1939 information was gained from England and Germany
in the effect of air-raids against cities and the civil population.

A total blackout of the country was declared and plans for evacuation of the population from threatened cities were worked out especially were the Germans expected invasion to
occur.Denmark did not suffer from major destructions during the war, however, several cities were subject to air-raids.

That was the case when British bomber aircraft attached the air
fields around Aalborg.To assist in case of major air-raids a number of mobile auxiliary units were established manned by conscripts.

They where named CBU-units. One of these units was based in northern Jutland
The manning of the National Civil Defence totalled in 1945 250.000 persons.
After 2. World War the National Civil Defence was closed down except for the CBU-units.

After the end of the cold war Denmark in 1992 introduced a new Civil Preparedness Act. The Civil Defence became very much reduced and was amalgamated with the fire-fighting service
under the present name Redningsberedskabet (Rescue Preparedness).