FLYING BOMBS.

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 60, 3 August 1944, Page 2

FLYING BOMBS.

MR. FRASER’S EXPERIENCES. Aided by foggy weather which made it difficult for fighter planes to intercept them, flying bombs had caused great devastation in parts of Southern England, but the people were carrying on with their tasks as they had under previous aerial attacks, and were setting a shining example to the world, said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) in an interview with the Standard, after his recent return fromthe United Kingdom. Air Fraser’s party were in England for about a fortnight after the flying bomb onslaught began, and its members had first-hand experiences of the havoc caused by this latest Nazi terror weapon.

One night when Air and Airs Fraser were in Lancashire visiting men of the R.N.Z.A.F. a bomb landed near their London hotel and shattered the windows of their rooms. Some of the Prime Minister’s staff who were staying atthe hotel that night saw the bomb conys down about two or three hundred yards away.

The arrival of a flying bomb, said Mr Fraser, was usually preceded by the sound of the air-raid warning. Then followed the noise of the bomb’s engine. People waited for the engine to stop, for they knew that a moment or two afterwards the explosion would come. The bombs fell to earth very soon after the engine stopped. In the heart of the City of London, said Mr Fraser, the anti-aircraft guns were not being used against the flying bombs when the New Zealand party left, for gunfire would have been so continuous that people would not have been able to rest because of the sound of the guns. More use was made of the guns in the suburbs and in the country in the South of England.

PEOPLE DID NOT CEASE WORK. People did not cease work when they heard the alarm as they realised that none would be done if they. stopped every a bomb came over, said the Prime Alinister. The bombs arrived at all hours of the day or night, and at all frequencies. “If the day was foggy,” said Mr Fraser, “they would come over very rapidly, because the fighter e planes could not find them to shoot them down. The fighter planes were doing excellent work in clear weather, but up to the time we left Britain the weather had been favourable to flying bomb attacks, just as it had been unfavorable to us in the invasion.”

Here Air Fraser digressed for a moment to speak of the invasion. “Considering the weather,” he said, ‘ ‘ the invasion was more successful than I personally ever thought possible, even though I was fanyliar with the extraordinarily and unprecedented preparation made. ’ ’

TRAGIC Flying bombs were responsible for many tragic scenes in London, said Mr Fraser. Particularly heavy damage was done in the working-class areas, such as Hammersmith, Fulham, Wandsworth, Kennington and the East End. “Coming through Balham shortly before we left England,” said the Primi Alinister, 1 ‘ Airs Fraser and I saw many heartrending sights. There was great devastation of houses, shops, and business premises. Many people were rendered homeless and it appeared to us as if practically the whole population of the area were making their way towards the shelters. It was about 8 o ’clock at night and a number of the bombs had landed in that area.

“My last impression of London was of the damage caused by the flying bombs in St. John’s Wood and Finchley, through which we passed on the way to the aerodrome on our way lionise. In both places very large blocks of flats had been blasted and there was a scene of devastation and ruin causing an impression of destruction and death which can never be forgotten. TRIBUTE TO THE PEOPLE “To this new form of attack, with which the Germans obviously intended to inspire terror, the people of London are reacting with the same courage, fortitude and determination that they showed during the severe blitz in February of this year and originally during the terrible air attacks of 1940 and 1941,” said Air Fraser. ‘ ‘ There is no sign of fear, far less panic, although this latest form of attack follows four years and nine months of endurance and suffering. There is no weakening. The people of London and of the South of England, as indeed, the people of the whole United Kingdom, aie a shining example of courage and endurance. No people, in such terrible circumstances, have ever show’n a finer spirit. ’ ’