DEFENCE OF LONDON

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 91, 17 November 1939, Page 5

DEFENCE OF LONDON

.+. A.R.P. TRAINING SURPRISE EXERCISES INSTITUTED (From The Guardian's London Correspondent) LONDON, October 14. Admiral Sir Edward Evans ("Evans of the Broke") has introduced some naval realism into his task of training London's civil defence workers, who are now at action stations night and day. The admiral is one the capital's two civil defence chiefs. Before the war started air-raid wardens, firemen, ambulance workers and others carried out prearranged exercises as part of their normal training. Now Admiral Evans has evolved a system of surprise exercises which, he thinks, gives better results than organised rehearsals. Somewhere in the wide area under his control in London and Greater London he selects a particular district and calls upon the local A.R.P. controller, whom he informs that there is an air-raid in the district. With a map he points out where bombs have fallen, where a certain bridge has been destroyed; houses are in flames, and a certain neighbourhood is impregnated with gas. The controller and his staff at once have to fake action as if a genuine alarm has been given. By telephone and messenger the whole machinery js put into motion under the watchful eye of the Admiral. Sir Edward has been carrying out these surprise visits almost every day.