IN THE FRONT LINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24491, 27 December 1940, Page 6

IN THE FRONT LINE

THE AERIAL BLITZKRIEG EXPERIENCE OF RAIDS Extracts from a letter recently received by a resident of Dunedin from his son, who entered the Royal Navy as a cadet from the Waihi School, South Canterbury, and is now employed ashore in England, contain a description of the experience of air raids:— "July 3, 1940: I wonder just what you feel about things over here these days, so just in case you are a bit doubtful here is the position. There is quite an extraordinary calmness and confidence about. We have near enough to 3,000,000 men under arms in this country, and that is sufficient to give me a lot of confidence in the matter of invasion. In fact, the usual comment is to the effect that it is such a pity he doesnt try invading us—he would get such hell. "Air raids were a bit of a worry at first, chiefly. I think, because we didn't know what it was going to be like, and then because we had a picture of what happened on the continent with all the refugees and the machinegunning and bombing of crowds. The thing is, so far. very different here. Where we are the first thing we hear about it is usually the roar of many aircraft in the distance., These, 1 imagine, are our own fighters taking off. Then in a few minutes, may be four or may be 10, the air raid warnings go off. The wail of the warning note rising and falling was very frightening at first, but now one's heart beats don't increase a bit: we are used to it. The Noise of Battle " The next thing is to distinguish the sound of the Hun bombers. They still have the same beat as in the last war; I remember them then. (He was seven.) Then we hear the noise of battle, the machine guns rattling, pom-pom-pom from the German gun fitted planes and the "blue" note of the fighters power diving on their targets. Very thrilling. One of yesterday's raids was the finest spectacle yet; there were very high white clouds, and it was easy to see the enemy formations as they came over. We watched the fighters come up and break up those formations. T saw about 35 enemy machines "It seems very difficult to shoot a plane down from the ground, but the fighters are grand, and the odds vary between three to one and seven or eight to one in our favour. At the moment they seem to be concentrating on aerodromes, and it is costing them dear. Fortunately we have none, within a number of miles, so we don't get bombed like some places, though we did have two bombs the other day, and I think that was only because the Jerry was being chased and just wanted to unload. "The kids like air raids now, and 1 have taken the decision not to go down to the shelter room till I decide, otherwise we shall be spending more than half the night there almost every night. "In the evenings the warnings usually go off between 9 and 10, the allclear not going till 3 or 4 a.m. If heavy, close gunfire or bombing happens then we take cover, but otherwise we take our rest. We usually go to bed during the warning period, and we have learned to sleep quite soundly. I wake whenever there is gunfire at all close, and have to decide whether or not to take action. My daughter complains if she is allowed to sleep right through the warning; they both like being got up and taken downstairs for biscuits. "The great thing about it all is that everyone is in immensely good heart and that the R.A.F. is coping magnlficiently; they certainly do drive tnem off. "As to the other things, the rationing is not such as one notices and really there is no shortage but : of eggs. Butter is rationed. * * * " September 9: There has been a hiatus in this letter. I was unable to finish and post it owing to the arrival of the aerial blitzkreig. I think I want to revise my opinion of air raids quite substantially. • / Soaring Flames " On the 7th in the evening it started. About 100 bombers got through in formations of:; about'30 r or 40 machines. The mass came straight over us and you can imagine the result. Our own building was unhit and all our people were in the shelters so we had no casualties. They went on further; the result was serious, though, as you will have heard, casualties were pretty slight. The oil storage depot went up and at times the flames must have been 1000 feet high. An awful sight That night the glow in the sky was very frightening and we knew the Hun had come over to see. He came all right. I .gave up counting after the 160th bomb. The house rocked a bit from time to time, but we were well out of it. I don't like such raids The 'all clear' went after about eight hours of it. The kids slept nearly all the time. "The next day they came over, but weren't allowed to reach the target area. The night brought another all night raid, almost as intense as that of the previous night, but we were so tired that we slept fairly well. " I saw a thing which demonstrated the tiredness of the people. A big man from the auxiliary fire service was trying to roll up a wet canvas hose, a small one. and he simply couldn't do it; I did it in about a minute. The poor devil had been firefighting all night and had been bombed pretty continuously in the doing of it. He was done. "We are all doing on some three hours' total sleep these days and the tendency is to snap and be snapped at, but that is a thing to be checked. On the whole people are astonishingly cheerful and matter-of-fact about it all. Invincible Determination " We have just had another raid over our heads whilst I have been writing and it is'amusing to try and tell the difference between their machines and ours bv the note of their engines, difficult where there are 200 or 300 machines overhead at the same time. It is quite easy to tell the bombers from the fighters and also the difference between the guns of our Renters and theirs is easily distinguished . "The sound of bombs is easy to tell from gunfire: in fact, vou might say that a gun goes 'honk,' only louder; the bursting shell goes ' crack.' usually much louder, while the bomb goes ''brroomph.' Doubtless you have heard them all in France in the days when people were fighting for civilisation. Nowadays we are fighting for freedom and oerhaps for our lives, and whatever the cost it will be cheap at the price. We will not let this land of ours come under the sway of that 'band of wicked men." I think there is not a man in the country who would not rather die than live to see that day But we aren't gloorAy, We are glad and very conscious of our honour in beine in the forefront of the battlefield."