CITIES UNDER SMOKE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 7, 20 October 1941, Page 8

CITIES UNDER SMOKE.

AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS. NEW SYSTEM IN BRITAIN. LONDON, October 12. Britain’s defence against air raids has attained # a pitch of efficiency nearing perfection. To radio location, deadly anti-aircraft fire and the ardour of the Royal Air Force, can now be added smoke screens as a new defence arm. These smoke screens, it is revealed, are being used to protect Britain s most vital industrial centres. Already they are estimated to have prevented millions in devastation. ' Smoke-producing units, part of the Army, closely co-operate with the Royal Air Force. They get ample warning of an expected attack, whereupon they envelop the whole area in clouds of black smoke. This blanket, impenetrable from the air, prevents enemy pilots from picking out targets, and they are forced to drop their bombs blindly. Glowing praise of Britain’s protective system comes from the enemy. The aviation editor of the newspaper “Stampa,” of Turin, one of the Italian towns heavily blasted by the Royal Air Force, says:— “The ardour of British pilots is assuming gigantic proportions. Biitish anti-aircraft defences and signalling system are almost-perfect. Nyt a single German aeroplane can reach British skies without being identified immediately after take-off.

“German bombers and fighters always fight over Britain in conditions of inferiority, because the Luftwaffe is clearly at a disadvantage compared with the Royal Air Force.