THIN TIME FOR RAIDERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 July 1939, Page 4

THIN TIME FOR RAIDERS

LONDON NOT SO VULNERABLE LONDON, June 22. During the September crisis Fleet Street, whose nerves are not exactly of the front-line-trench variety, was harrowed by official estimates that London’s air casualties for a non-stop 24-hours’ raid might total 300,000. The Air Raid Defence League, which would be unlikely to exaggerate our safety, now puts the estimate as low as 35,000 which suggests that by slow degrees we are beginning to get over our jit-ter-bug epidemic. But 35,000 casualties is bad enough, though only a small percentage of London’s 8,000,000 souls. The medical view is that about 10 per cent, of these problematical air raid casualties might need blood transfusion. So plans for providing this are now part and parcel of our A.R.P., and have been elaborately organised already. Volunteers in the central danger zones number 100,000, and in the outer suburbs 80,000. As only about 43 per cent, of Londoners are fit to transmit blood in this way, a careful test of the gallant 180,000 is being made. If the worst happens, and wholesale blood transfusion takes place, a new kind of blood kinship will -be created in the metropolitan area. Meanwhile, those in control of our air defences are taking a far less gloomy view of London’s vulnerability. From the potential ah’ raider’s point of view, they are now quite confident the game will not be worth the candle. Between oui’ fast and powerful-ly-gunner fighter planes, now being turned out by the hundreds, oui’ balloon barrages, steel shelters, and shelters, and trenches, and, above all, our A.A. batteries, the raiders would have the thinnest of thin times. So say authorities who a few months ago were inclined to be panicky. Our A.A. batteries include three types of gun. A 4-incher that fires a shell every five or six seconds, a 3.7 that fires a slightly smaller shell at a slightly quicker rate, and a 3-incher with almost a machine-gun delivery. The range, or ceiling, of the first two is over 30,000 ft. The bigger shell has a burst effective of 100 yards, and the smaller one of 60 yards, within which no plane could have much chance of escape. The 3-incher’s ceiling is much lower, and it is meant for dealing with any attempt to bomb at low altitude. The first invulnerability of the plane has gone for good. Bombing is now rather a suicidal business at best.