Home Defence Against Air Raid Operates

Northern Advocate, 19 November 1941, Page 9

Home Defence Against Air Raid Operates

LONDON, November 18. An impression of a German air raid over a large industrial city in the north-west of England is given in a War Office bulletin, says the British Official Wireless. It states: “Out on the heavy anti-aircraft gun site alarm bells call the gunners to action stations. “The gun position officer receives the report ‘All ready for action,’ and. with a sergeant as assistant, he controls the fire of the 4.5-inch gun? grouped around him in a semi-circle. I “In a dugout telephonists get the | latest information from the gun oper- | ation room, the estimated height, j speed, bearing and range of the night raiders. “As the enemy aeroplanes swing into the attack the brigade commander calls all gun position officers to the telephone. Tt looks like being 1 a party,’ he says. ‘Good shooting.’ j Perfect Salvo “The fuse is forecast by predictor number four and rapped out with machine-like efficiency. It is relayed to the guns, fuses are set, and rounds are clapped into the gun chambers. Breach blocks move across with a loud click, then comes the order, ‘Fire!’ "With a roar and flash four guns go off together in a perfect salvo. Tire empty brass cartridge cases are ejected from the chambers at speed and clatter across the concrete emplacements. “Slowly the predictor is being traversed, following the course of the aeroplane, and tire gun-layers, with eyes glued on the electrical dials, move the guns to the same bearing and angle. For Five Minutes “No. 4 predicts another fuse, and again the guns bark out. Bombs whistle down less than half-a-mile away. The guns keep on firing. Five .hours go by. -The guns have hardly stopped firing and the gunners have stuck to the job of pumping those heavy shells into the air without a sign of tiredness. “Towards midnight there is a lull. Hot cocoa and bread is passed around. Within half-an-hour the attack is renewed. Soon after 1 a.m. half-a-dozen Royal Army Service Corps lorries appear, heavily laden with ammunition. They have driven right through the worst of the raid. All spare men are collected, the shells are unloaded at top speed and distributed to the guns. Caught in Net “At 3.20 a.m. a spotter reports a large glow in the sky, slowly gliding to earth. It is a plane caught in a barrage of shells. As it hits the ground there is a sheet of light as bright as that from any bombs that have been dropped. “But there are still more aeroplanes. Not until dawn, more than 12 hours after the ‘take post.’ does the ‘stand easy’ come.”