AIR RAIDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20827, 4 July 1942, Page 3

AIR RAIDS

LESSONS FROM MALAYA Information about the effect of Japanese air attacks on buildings and people In Singapore and other parts of Malaya is contained in a letter written by a leading architect of Singapore, who is now in Australia, which has been forwarded to engineering officials in New Zealand. The writer, Mr. G. G. Boutcher, states that high explosive bombs used by the Japanese at Penang were about 701 b., and on Singapore 2001 b. A 701 b. H.E. bomb from six to eight thousand feet penetrated a 6in. reinforced concrete slab and slightly damaged the slab below. He considered that anyone on the ground floor of even a three-storey building with reinforced concrete roof and flooring was safe from a direct hit from light bombs. He saw no evidence of collapse or penetration of good-quality 9in. brick walls from near misses, say, 10 yards away. Machine-gun bullets penetrated tiled and iron roofs, but no'l even poor-quality brick walls. On could learn to judge when to take shelter from bombers, but it was quite impossible to dodge machinegunning. He never saw machinegunning from planes higher than 1000 feet, and generally it was from 500 feet and lower, and “they were over the house tops and on you before you knew they were there.” “All glass must be removed from buildings, including doors, windows, inside partitions, showcases, pictures, mirrors, electric light fittings (bulbs do not matter),” he writes. “Wire-netting, strips of paper, linen, cellophane, he considers not effective, and he thinks it far better to make part of a residence, shop, office, factory or other buildings blast-proof and splinter-proof than to build a shelter. , If a building is fairly substantially built with nine-inch brick walls it is only necessary to remove all glass from that part of the building you intend using as a shelter, and put a protection inside or outside all openings in external walls.”