CAMOUFLAGE EXPERT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23177, 14 November 1940, Page 8

CAMOUFLAGE EXPERT

CHRISTCHURCH MAN’S APPOINTMENT PROTECTING BRITISH FACTORIES Head technician in the Civil Defence Camouflage Establishment in England is Mr Geoffrey B. Hobbs, of Christchurch. Mr Hobbs, who is a son ol Mr F. W, Hobbs, of Papanui road, was born and educated in Christchurch and went to London, where he became a highly successful architect in private practice. He was appointed to his official position early this year, and describes the work as fascinating. In a letter to his people, received last week, he says that the establishment consists of a staff running into three figures comprising departmental heads, scores of artists, some of whom are Royal Academicians, workshop men. clerks, photographers, and an air section which, beside dealing with transport, is responsible for observation and aerial photography of the premises to be camouflaged. "Models to a large scale are supplied by the premises concerned.” says Mr Hobbs in his letter, "and in the studios the artists design their camouflage. then send the models back to be copied on the actual buildings. My job will be to assist with many of the knotty problems attached to the final application of the camouflage (which, as you probably know, is not always just paint), and I shall have to visit the actual premises instructing them, costing the work, etc. In this respect I shall be the head technician. Mostly I shall get about by my own car. for which a reasonable allowance will be made; but occasionally, I hope. I shall be flown about./ Inspections will, however, take only a comparatively small part of my time since there will oe much to do in the research labs., etc. You will perceive from this that it is a fascinating job.” Mr Hobbs says that he cannot give more details of his new job. "I see a lot though," he says, ‘‘and one thing I can tell you is that the war effort oJ this country is truly enormous, and as we are already smashing them in the air? the Nasties just haven’t a chance, I always thought it would be a short war. and I think next summer will finish it with, possibly, Italy out of it well before then. The Germans will just never stand up to what is coming to them from our Air Force, particularly after this lean (for them) winter, and with nothing but defeat staring them in the face. "The German bombing is really as punk as we stale.. They cannot help hitting London and the coastal towns, of course: but when they go wandering up through the Midlands they are more dangerous to the livestock than to people. In fact it is amazing how seldom they hit a target. The majority of them must have had only one-quar-ter of the training of our lads, and they haven’t the guts for it either, apart from the occasional Gestapo bully who is forced on them as a passenger. Yesterday when a Dornier came down, three little Germans came out 'all civil like.’ and then a G-man blundered out and spat in the face of the police sergeant who was rounding them up. That bully didn’t wake up until noon to-day. London has been getting it just as hot as the papers tell, but we really are shooting them down at the staggering odds claimed.” As the letter was being written, a German aeroplane flew low over the house occupied by Mr Hobbs. ‘‘They pass over most nights, but never as low as that before.” he says. "We are pretty used to that sort of thing, but the lowness of that aeroplane was a bit disturbing.” In a postscript added the following morning, Mr Hobbs records that the low-flying aeroplane crashed into a barrage balloon not far away.