HEW TACTICS ARE UNDOUBTED SUCCESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 218, 13 September 1940, Page 7

HEW TACTICS ARE UNDOUBTED SUCCESS.

LONDON DEFENCE. Terrific Gun Barrage Meets Attackers. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Reed. 1 p.m.) LONDON", Sept. 12. German aeroplanes attempted to raid London again last night for the fifth night in succession, but found new tactics employed against them by the ground defences. London was ringed with a curtain of antiaircraft fire and searchlights were hardly used at all. The raiders seemed nonplussed. It is authoritatively stated that last night's anti-aircraft fire in the form of a barrage based on new methods of prediction was an innovation undoubtedly successful. The same kind of defence is likely to continue, and it is hopod to improve upon ■'"•e present method* with continued practice. A British official wireless message says the new anti-aircraft barrage used (on Wednesday night in the defence of London, which is described in the Press as "the heaviest ever put up in the defence of any city," had a reassuring effect on Londoners, who, though they are standing the strain of the ferocious German air attack with admirable calm, were delighted to realise from the new noises overhead that the German airmen were receiving an unusually warm welcome. When it was gathered what the new aerial inferno meant, comment heard (everywhere to-day was that no music was more pleasant to ears attuned to the "crump"' of bombs and the drone of enemy bombers, and though only fitful sleep was' rendered possible, this is regarded as a matter of rejoicing rather than complaint. The statement that this new barrage method is likely to be continued and even get better is greeted with great satisfaction. Although bombs were dropped, the general result of the barrage was that the raiders were kept away from central London, and were able to get to the suburbs only in small numbers. The raid was probably more widespread •than on the previous night for this reason. The barrage was a terrific one. It went on for several hours without a break, and then continued at interval* until dawn, when the last raider had been driven back to ; base. -Nothing like it has ever been heard before in the city or anywhere else. The batt ries fired into sectors of the skv, rather than at aircraft as they appeared. It was like a sustained roll of thunder. Guns of all calibres seemed to be in action. Some were of a heavier type t) .1 have been heard in the capital before. Whole districts were lighted up by the flashes of the guns.