MOCK AIR RAID

Evening Star, Issue 23503, 17 February 1940, Page 16

MOCK AIR RAID

BOMBERS OVER AUCKLAND A RECRUITING STUNT [Pee United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, February 16. Bombers from Hobsonvillo to-night gave Auckland a first-hand idea of an air raid. They swooped over Queen street and swept from one end to another, seeming to be just high enough to miss the flag poles on the roofs of some buildings. From the rear gunner’s -seat a figure in flying kit leant out and dropped handfuls of leaflets. Although many of the leaflets were either caught in tjie slipstream or fluttered in eddies of wind on to tho buildings or over Queen street, many scored direct hits and were eagerly rushed for by hundreds of people. On the leaflets was this: — “ If this were a bomb, where would you be? Our kindred in Great Britain are living under a constant threat of aerial attack and facing it with fortitude. Remember what happened to Austria, Czeeho-Slovakia, and Poland. Could we expect any different treatment? We are at war to defend their rights and ours. What are you doing to help? The army needs men now. It needs you. Enlist to-day.” The intention of the flight, ’ which embraced Queen street, Karangahape road, and Newmarket, was to encourage men to enlist. It was arranged by the Auckland Metropolitan Patriotic Committee, with the co-operation of the army and the Royal New Zealand Air Force