"BOMBED AND GASSED"

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4693, 14 May 1935, Page 2

"BOMBED AND GASSED"

BERLIN'S MOCK AIR RAID. OBSERVERS IMPRESSED. Berlin, March 20. To-day the Berlin district of Kreuzberg was the scene of an air raid practice under mimic war conditions, writes the Berlin correspondent of "The .Times." The "air raid" was simulated by a squadron of nine an--craft representing bombers, which swept down low with a roar over the slope near the Tempelhof aerodrome from which Kreuzberg takes its name. Dummy bombs were exploded all over the quarter, and the smell of poison gas was effectively imitated with chemicals. »

At 10 a.m., when, the alarm was given; all the inhabitants not enrolled in special squads were supposed to take refuge underground. Little

groups of tenants from houses without adequate cellars were seen hurrying along, keeping close to the house walls, under the leadership of their "house guardian" to public bomb shelters. They seemed on the whole to enter into the game with keenness, some of them stumbling along with handkerchiefs to their noses. Meanwhile outbreaks of fire were simulated'with pyrotechnics and coloured flags were hoisted on housetops to indicate various other dangers caused by bomb explosions. At headquarters messages were pouring in by telephone, or, if that was impossible, by messenger. In one case a message was brought in at the double ,by a small boy wearing a steel helmet.

Squads of trained men then got to work, the Technical Emergency men having pulled up a large street section in advance to represent a bomb crater, and proceeded to handle the debris and fill it in. Others were to

be seen shoring up collapsing houses with beams (fissures were simulated by long black streamers across roofs or walls) or digging out people "buried" in cellars. The gas de-con-tamination squads, looking like robots in their masks and clumsy gas-proof overalls, rushed round in lorries, .while the water and domestic gas squads had to handle respectively a burst water main and a broken gas main on fire.

Their work and the behaviour of the population showed the result of the detailed training of the Air Defence League. This organisation has some 5,000,000 members and has trained 1,500,000 in special schools, of whom 280,000 have definite official duties allotted to them, and 800,000 were appointed Hauswarte, or house guardians. Up to three months ago about 50 per cent, of the attics in houses had been cleared of inflammable material and 7000 air raid cellars had been constructed and

equipped. Kreuzberg is divided into groups, sectors and districts corresponding to police station wards. Each ward has squads of technical workers and the sector commander has reserves at his disposal. The gas decontamination squads are composed of ordinary street cleaners with dust carts as their "transport," and water works, gas and electricity men are at hand to deal with burst mains and power wires destroyed by explosions.

To-day's defence exercise and last night's darkening experiment throughout the city have provided a fairly comprehensive survey of the remarkable success with which the German authorities have already taught the population the elementary principles, and more, of organisation against air raids. The discipline displayed made a deep impression on observers, some of whom were sent specially from Belgium, Holland,

Spain and Switzerland, in addition to the military and air attaches. All were treated by the authorities with frankness and helpfulness.

It is true that the city had had some six weeks to prepare, but this was the first general darkening exercise. From the moment of the preliminary warning l at 10 p.m. the darkening of windows was complete. Judging from a height of 4000 ft. the impression was gained that only indiscriminate bombing would have been possible.