Defending the city of Portsmouth from the Squirmy Munge was vitally important, of course, but as a popular phrase of the time reminded citizens “Defence starts at your doorstep!” and so it was that many homes in and around the island became highly fortified structures.
Popular means of improving one’s house included:
- Asbestos coating, to act as fire retardant.
- Steel shutters for the windows to protect from shrapnel.
- Holy water fonts (as some people considered – and weren’t dissuaded from considering by the church who sold and installed the fonts – that the aliens were sent by Satan).
- Electrified door knockers (eventually forbidden in the city owing to high numbers of postmen requiring hospitalisation and a general acceptance that that Squirmy Munge probably wouldn’t knock anyway).
But there were also some very innovative attempts at protecting property too. Two streets in Milton painted a mural of grass, trees, and large boulders on their rooftops in an attempt to fool any passing Squirmy Munge fighter bombers into targeting elsewhere. Either the aliens were not fooled or they were just clumsy or lucky because an evening raid in October 1921 proved very costly for the neighbourhood with two thirds of the buildings hit.
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