RAID INCIDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23829, 3 December 1940, Page 4

RAID INCIDENTS

BOMB NEAR HOTEL AUCKLANDER'S EXPERIENCE PEOPLE'S STAUNCH SPIRIT The adventures of a member of the Second Echelon. Sergeant .1. Bracegirdle, of the 4th Anti-Tank Company, during an air raid over England are described in a letter received by his father, Mr. A. Bracegirdle, of Parnell. Sergeant Bracegirdle was in a hotel in a small town near the New Zealanders' billets when a bomb exploded in a house across the street, only 15 yards away. "A tremendous rushing noise, accompanied by the falling of everything that could fall, crash of glass, with dust and splinters everywhere," is how Sergeant Bracegirdle describes the explosion. A big clock on the, wall fell, just missing his head, it knocked off bis bat and fell at his feet. "My military training made me flatten out," he continues. "When things had stopped ialling I made for the truck outside the hotel. I wanted my torch. The concussion of the bomb explosion had lifted a man-hole cover right off. I fell into this in the darkness, picked, or rather pulled, myself out, grabbed the torch and began to do what 1 could to help. There was no one injured in the hotel. 1 did a bit of rescue stuff, getting a few injured to the ambulances, which arrived, it seemed, from nowhere. They were on the spot in just a few minutes. "Up the road fires had been started bv incendiary bombs, but the Auxiliary I'M re Service chaps were on the job in no time and had things under control. People turned out in dozens to assist, and all the services which operate in raids were out in full force within a lew minutes. To see the way people stand up to these raids is to realise the hopelessness ol ever trying to conquer Ibis country. I have been over most ol the south ol I'.ngland, and everyone shows the same 'carry on!' spirit." Sergeant Uraeegirdlo is a brother of Sergeant-Gunner James Bracegirdle, who was reported missing in September after a (light into enemy territory.