NIGHT ATTACKS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 45, 3 December 1940, Page 8

NIGHT ATTACKS

LIFE IN WESTERN DESERT.

AUSTRALIAN CAMP ROUTINE

SYDNEY, Novebmer 22

"With the waxing of the moon, air raids ; are again a nightly feature l of A.i.F. camp life in the Western Desert, says the war correspondent of the,, ;'Sydney Morning Herald,’ 5 in a dispatch from Alexandria. Sensitive detectors pick up the sound 4if-the-raiders-while-they-are- still-many miles away, and the warning is flashed from camp to camp by siren, which generally sounds early in the night. 5 ' •' Men Enter Trenches. The raids are now accepted as a matter of routine, the novelty having long since worn off. The men, cursing Mussolini and all his works, don steel helmets and great-coats for the nights are now very cold and get into:. the slit trenches, which have been dug outside every tent, at the first intimation of the raiders’ approach.. u. The faint hum of engines gradually growing in volume and then fading away again is followed by the heavy crump, of. bombs in the distance. The A.I.F. camps have not been singled out yet for special attention. Making a Gesture. The raids are always very short and very few bombs seem to be dropped. The impression is that the Italian airmen are anxious to make a gesture, then get away as quickly as possible. The military effect of these hit-and-run affairs is precisely nil. From the trench of one of the Australian posts last night, the correspondent adds, I watched an air raid against Alexandria. It was a typical Italian affair of high-flying bombers and haphazardly-aimed bombs, but it provided a most spectacular fireworks display. The whole countryside was, of course, blacked out, and showed no glimmer of light, but there was bright moonlight, with patches of white cloud—ideal raiding weather. .C. High overhead we heard the drone of- aeroplane engines. * Suddenly from all points of the compass powerful beams stabbed the sky as the Egyptian searchlight batteries went into action. Line of Flame. Back and forth across the sky went the questing lightbeams, crossing and reefbssirig,: probing the cloudbanks and striving to pick up the raiders. All at once, the horizon in front of iis seemed to dissolve in .flames. It was the anti-aircraft defences opening up, flash after flash, until there was a continuous flickering line of flame. High tip among the clouds, bursting shrapnel blossomed in fiery roses. A few seconds later the sound of the guns reached us as a low, rumbling thunder. Now. and again there were explosions on a flatter note, which marked the fall of bombs. Then as quickly as it had begun the raid was- over.