BRITAIN'S BLACK-OUTS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4510, 18 March 1941, Page 3

BRITAIN'S BLACK-OUTS.

Mystifying Nazi Bnmbers. Black-out regulations are irksome but in the Old Country once householders understood the need for making efficient any precautions taken, all thought of inconvenience vanished. Safety is better than comfort.

The black-out, it was explained, is not designed to protect one home, but to protect vital targets and to save lives. To achieve this it must be sufficiently complete to prevent accurate navigation, aimed bombing, or to make unaimed bombing a totally haphazard affairObservation From The Air. The general * application of the scheme is to cut down lighting in large towns so that the outline is obscured to such an extent that it cannot be recognised—in other words, so that small towns look like villages and villages disappear entirely, or look like single cottages. Lights on roads and railways are also reduced to deprive enemy airmen of aids. In Britain the policy adopted by the authorities was to produce a icioimplete black-out as a basis and then, whenever possible, to grant relaxations which were decided upon by trial from the air. Incidentanlly, it may be of interest to know that the normal peace-time lighting of a town can be seen by the pilot of an aircraft mare than 30 miles away in conditions favourable to him. Experiments carried out before tire war showed that adequate war-time amenity lighting was visible at 10-000 feet from a distance of 10 miles. The lighting which was- of value to pedestrians could be seen at 2,000 feet from 1 mile, while motor-car lights, improperly screened, have been seen at 10,000 feet from seven or eight miles.

In a reasonably clear night a pocket torch, oarelessily used, and raised above the horizontal, .can give away position to aircraft 6,009 feet up at a distance of three miles, and the ordinary sitting-room light is visible at 19,000 feet some four or five miles away.

The area of a city may be so large that it will always be located from the air,' but by means of ’ effective black-out the outline can be blurred and roads made so difficult to trace that even aimed bombing will not be profitable. In Britain it was found that the country black-out generally was good but cases were reported where the bombing of villages was directly attributable to the fact that lights had not been properly screened, One of the factors helping to put the Nazi bombers off their targets in Britain at night is the effective blackout which 'hampers the navigators, and this has been secured by strict application of black-out rules. These rules have saved thousands of lives, and they have protected valuable factories working on munitions.