. Bell telephone magazine . s, andemergency supplies were en route tothe affected areas; crews from nearbyBell companies were rolling over thehighways with their own trucks andequipment. More than twenty-threehundred men with six hundred ve- 208 Bell Telephone Magazine hides moved into the stricken areasof New England to help the more thanseven thousand men of the New Eng-land and Southern New England Com-panies. They stayed there for weeks,working from dawn to dusk, andlonger, until the job was done. Telephone operators were flown into Boston to do their bit. The West-ern Electric Company wor
. Bell telephone magazine . s, andemergency supplies were en route tothe affected areas; crews from nearbyBell companies were rolling over thehighways with their own trucks andequipment. More than twenty-threehundred men with six hundred ve- 208 Bell Telephone Magazine hides moved into the stricken areasof New England to help the more thanseven thousand men of the New Eng-land and Southern New England Com-panies. They stayed there for weeks,working from dawn to dusk, andlonger, until the job was done. Telephone operators were flown into Boston to do their bit. The West-ern Electric Company worked aroundthe clock to supply the enormousquantities of materials required tomake repairs. The Warning Recognized W ITH such a background, and withthe possibility of a war which mightinvolve the United States, it was to beexpected that the sudden increase intelephone calls in September, 1939,led Bell System people to begin atonce to get ready to meet a graveemergency. When war is not imme-diately upon you and hope tries in-. sidiously to triumph over experience,getting ready for war is first depend-ent on a state of mind. Becausebusiness as usual is a part of themake-up of all of us in peaceful times,it is a difficult habit to abandonquickly when war is only all remember the long lull andapparent stalemate when the Germanand French armies faced each otheracross the no-mans-land between theMaginot Line and the West until May 10 of the followingyear (1940) did the German forcesinvade Belgium, the Netherlands, andLuxemburg. But, fortunately, it wasthe practical experience of handlingthe toll calls associated with the out-break of war in Europe which madeBell System people war conscious. On May 28 and 29, 1940, twoevents of great importance occurred:King Leopold of the Belgians sur-rendered his army unconditionally tothe Germans, and the President ofthe United States approved the regu-lations governing the functioning ofthe Advisory Commission to the re-estab
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