REPRISALS URGED

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1940, Page 8

REPRISALS URGED

“PEPPER POT” TACTICS. LONDON, November 15. Advocating ‘reprisal raids” against German cities, Dr. W. H. Ogilvie, of Guy’s Hospital, London, stated that there was no evidence of aiming by German raiders beyond the “aim” achieved by shaking a pepper pot. “My work takes me through many parts of London, and I have a pretty accurate knowledge of where bomb damage has been done,” he said. “There has been no concentration near railways, power stations or factories.

“A policeman asked me to certify the death of an old man and a girl who had just been killed on the roadside in a peaceful London suburb. The German who killed them had not been below the clouds after crossing the coast. A single bomb from an altitude of five miles killed 24 women in a hpspital. “It is not Christian to undertake reprisals, but we should adopt temporarily the German methods of air warfare and begin Royal Air Force raids from a similar height on military targets after we have given public warnings. Such action would have a deterrent effect and would also provide a rest for pilots who have had a bad time carrying out accurate low-level bombing.”