ACME Whistles and the D-Day Clicker
Did you know that the most interesting Acme whistle was not actually a whistle at all? The Acme clicker was a genius idea – for about 24 hours. And then it wasn't.
Joseph Hudson (1848–1930) was an inventor in Birmingham, England during the late 19th century, and the founder in 1870 of J Hudson & Co, the maker of Acme whistles.
In 1883, Hudson entered a competition held by the Metropolitan Police force in London to design a better way of attracting people’s attention. They were seeking something with a distinctive and loud sound that anybody could hear and immediately think: “Police.” Prior to this time the police force had to rely on cumbersome wooden hand rattles.
Hudson won the competition with his “Acme Metropolitan” whistle. It included a small cork pea inside the whistle, giving it an ear-splitting rattle that could grab attention up to 2 miles away. After only one year he had taken orders for over 250,000 whistles (for use by police forces, the military, sporting bodies, railways, etc. throughout the British Empire) … and was employing 50 people in his Buckingham Street factory. His whistle is still used today by the Metropolitan Police force, and indeed many others worldwide.
Another Hudson classic is the “Acme Thunderer”which has been, and remains, the world’s most used whistle. It was also the world’s first sports whistle, and its thundering sound can be heard on football pitches, ice hockey rinks and a multitude of other sporting environments internationally. Notably, they could be found on board the RMS Titanic; and an original was lent to the producers of the 1997 film Titanic, so that Kate Winslet could be blowing feebly on the real thing. [Ed: Google “Titanic Whistle Scene”]
But the most interesting Acme whistle was not a whistle at all.
The D-Day landings of World War II in June 1944 called for a safe way for the soldiers arriving by sea to communicate “friend, not foe” with paratroopers whilst in enemy territory. The US military commissioned Hudson to secretly produce and supply 7,000 small brass clickers, internally known as the “No. 470 clicker”, incorporating the spring steel blade being used in popular toys at the time.
The 101st Airborne Division were equipped with clickers on the eve of the invasion, and a simple protocol was established. If, during a patrol, a single “click-clack” was answered with a double “click-clack” in return, then the clicker would know that he was dealing with a friendly.
The Acme clickers (affectionately known as “crickets”) would prove to be a vital piece of survival equipment for the paratroopers involved in those D-Day landings. The only downside was that the idea had a very short shelf life. As soon as the enemy captured one allied soldier, scoring themselves a clicker, the system became untrustworthy.
The clickers have appeared in numerous feature films, e.g. The Longest Day, television series, e.g. Band of Brothers, as well as documentaries, and are recognised by veterans the world over.
Hudson was not told the purpose of the project, and wasn’t allowed to keep a single sample. Therefore, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, it promoted “The Search for the Lost Clickers of D-Day” to try and find a clicker from that original batch. Much to the company’s surprise, an original clicker turned up not far from their factory in Birmingham. Liz Campbell and her husband Diarmid found it among a collection of military items kept by Liz’s father, Captain Geoffrey Kemp Bond (1906–1997).
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I was seven years old in camp and color war was happening. Both black and white teams were told to find an acme thunder. No one knew what it was. It was finally found on the head counselor‘s neck.