AIR RAID SHELTERS

Grey River Argus, 2 January 1942, Page 3

AIR RAID SHELTERS

DESIGN OF TRENCHES CRITICISED WELLINGTON. Dec. 31. Methods officially adopted to provide shelter for citizens of Wellington in case of an enemy raid were criticised by a returned member of the 2nd N.Z.E.F., who was in London during the heavy blitzes at the end of 1940 and who himself assisted to dig slit trenches occupied by New Zealand soldiers in camp in England. Bitter experience of bombing raids, he said, had shown the authorities ■in Britain the most effective methods of protection. New Zealand should profit by that, experience while there was yet time. Much of the work at present being done in Wellington was. he. considered. misdirected. He did not want his criticism to be regarded as destructive, but he felt that he would be failing in his • duty if he did not point out that protective works undertaken publicly and recommended for private construction did not conform in design and specifications with those found most effective in actual raids on Britain. His criticism was directed chiefly at the trenches now being constructed. They were, he said, too long, too wide at the top, and not deep enough, and not correctly aligned. A trench three to four feet wide- and 40 feet long in a straight line was dangerous. A slit trench should be what the name implied—just wide enough to squeeze into and deep enough to let the occupants crouch comfortably, not almost on hands and knees The trenches should be dug in the form of V’s to accommodate not more than six persons in each leg of the V, and the V’s should preferably be irregularly placed, not in line. If a bomb fell anywhere near the end Of a straight 40ft trench it would be swept clear. If the nature of the ground made the construction of narrow trenches difficult, sandbags should be used to reinforce the sides. Access to trenches should be as short as possible and should be placed at an acute angle to the trench, not in line with it. Though the difficulties were realised subdivided underground shelters of sufficient capacity to provide for several hundred people who might be caught in crowded areas should be built as soon as possible, he added and sanitation and hygienic amenities should be provided. Suitable basements should be strengthened and sandbagged heavily at the street line. Most important of all. as pro-, tection against blasts, sandbag barriers should be erected in front .Pt entrances to any buildings whicn might be used as shelters. Blast was a thing to be guarded • against just as much as splinters and flying debris.