A DROPPING BOMB

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1940, Page 6

A DROPPING BOMB

WHEN A SCREAM GETS LOUDER

THE BOMB AVILL DROP NEAR . YOU (By Sir lan Fraser, the blind English M.P. Recently a/ bomb fell just outside, the gate of St. Dunstan’s, London’s Lupous hospital for the blind. It made a crater 36 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Dozens of windows in the. headquarters office and in my house, which is next door, were blown in, and many hundreds of slates wqre cracked or displaced. Doors, window frames, and plaster were damaged, and many tons of' rubble, stones, bricks, and metal plastered the buildings and the yards around. Nobody was hit, and nobody is any worse, except that gas, electricity, and water supplies were affected. The first two have been remedied, but -we have now all been without water for .some days, "but it is wonderful what you can do with a. few buckets of water. My wife and I and our staff live in the house next door, to the headquarters, and we were, there on this occasion. AVe were sleeping about 90 feet from the bomb .crater, and our experience was as follows:

I happened to be awake, and was standing outside the shelter having a, cigarette. Two or three hopibs dropped, but I could hear by the poise .which they made while -.coming dqwn that they were some distance away.

Old soldiers will remember that when we heard a long-distance shell* after, a split second or -two we could tell whether it was coming on our lilie or not! It jis m,uch the same with bombs—lf the whistling noise remains more or less constant, you jean be sure the bomb is, At any rate, 200 or 300 yards away, possibly more.

If; on the other hand, the bomb is really dropping on you, or very near -you. you are immediately aware that the whistling noise is rapidly getting louder. These were not screaming bombs—l have not yet heard one near—but ordinary high-explosive bombs, which make a - whistling rather like a shell approaching you, and a little like the swish of a rocket.

I threw away my cigarette and went into the shelter, sitting on -the step with the door open. Then I heard this bomb .coming down, and: immediately recognised that it vvas coming near. The whistling, sizzling noise increased .(terrifically as tl/e bomb drew nearer. I had time .to wake my wife up, -tell -.her to put her. fingers in her mouth, which: is a good way of ensuring that the mouth is open to (protect thq ears, and to shut the door of the shelter.

If you really hear the bomb as I aid from the time it leaves the, aeroplane it is surprising how long, it takes to come down. I think a bomb falls at 150 m.p.h., whereas sound travels at about-700 rn.p.h., so that the noise comes well in advance of the missile.

One of the St. Dunstan’s buildings was between us and the bomb, so that we did not receive the direct blast, but it was sufficient to shake the whole shelter and fill it with dust. Apart from this, we had no other experience except that of anxiety followed by relief. or two after the explosion a large quantity of ruble anfl debris came down o,n the shelter.

The interesting thing about this, is that we, and all tile others concerned, are less apprehensive now than rwe were before. 1 think the unknown is always worse than the known. Another thing which lessen* anxiety is the power to discriminate the noise ,of bombs and the noise of anti-aircraft guns. After s a little experience you get to know the difference. :

Of course, if you are. really smashed up ,or if those near and dear to you .are smashed up the psychological ■effect may ;be different. But if you : have what .they call a “near miss,” the effect iseems .to be to put up morale and make you feel better afterwards. I beliove this personal experience will he found to «be the-samje 41s that of scores of thousands of Londoners who, as tlie days of. bombardment continue, become more and more used to it and less and less worried about it. All the world is admiring London' for the way it is sticking this, aerial bombardment. Sand 'I icannot; write too highly of the hundreds of blinded soldiers who are re-, maining in London and carrying on with their daily work as crafts-, men, telephone operators, and as. masseurs.