MOCK AIR RAID

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 21

MOCK AIR RAID

ROYAL FAMILY WATCH SANDRINGHAM "BOMBED" [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Jan. 30 The King nnd Queen, with the two Princesses and Queen Mary, watched a mock air raid over Sandringham, their Norfolk home, on January 28. About 200 members of the Royal staff and estate workers took part in the ' demonstration, during which mustard gas bombs were represented by smoke bombs. Their Majesties and their two daughters took no part in the practice and did not wear gas masks.

When the alarms sounded the drill prepared for all members of the King's staff at Sandringham was put into immediate operation. Men and women left their posts and hurried to their stations or Tetreated into the concrete bomb-proof shelters which had been built. The demonstration lasted just Under an hour.

Three aeroplanes from Bircham Newton Royal Air Force station swooped over the estate at high speed, one of them dropping imaginary bombs and the others firing dummy bullets from their machine-gun turrets.

Smoke poured from the windows of York Cottage, which used to be the home of the King and Queen, but is now unoccupied. The fire brigade then played on it and gave a demonstration of rescue work. First-aid workers rendered assistance to the "casualties from "gas poisoning" and "machinegun bullet wounds, and tho decontamination squad smothered the ga3. Later an official statement revealed that the practice was the result of a course of lectures which the estate firemen and staff had received.