BEING BOMBED

Patea Mail, 6 January 1941, Page 3

BEING BOMBED

AN INTERESTING STORY (From a British Army doctor stationed at Bristol, England, to the New York .times.) To say we wish you were here would be a lie, because X don't' sincerely wish that bn my . enemies. Not that it 's bad here in Bristol compared to. what it was in Condon, nor that it i s unbearable, but New York is certainly a healthier place at the moment. And don't kid yourself that" sitting around reading about raids and hearing about them on the radio is worse than being in them. ■ When a bomb comes whistling, down and-you hold your breath -wondering just exactly Where it is going to fall; one experiences real fright and no one is ashamed to admit it. That it is possible to get used to explosions in the distance, to the shrapnel whizzing overhead, the noise of buildings crumbling down,, and the sight of fires, with .flames piling on flames. I'Ve learned by now. That it's possible to get used to hearing bombs coming at you, ‘ the iwhistle getting louder and louder as it near s the earth, I don't believe. It's worse than shellfire because the shell that hits you you don’t hear, because the shells travel faster than sound, but bombs don’t, IN A TAPER PARCEL We don’t talk about the raids much ! now, except in a general way. Everybody one knows or meets has had some experience of being bombed out of . home or office, or having bombs in one's gardeny or delayed-action bombs in one V , street, and because of that, to relate one’s experience is to become a bore. We keep our sense of humour, but some of the jokes we used to make • when you were here about bombs and sudden death would be rather in bad taste just now. Not, that there aren’t a lot of jokes 'made. There’s the one about the B. B|.C. announcer who slept -with an incendiary bomb under his bed and only discovered it next . morning when he noticed a hole in the ceiling; and the fellow who was driving a, load of nnexploded incendiaries to the local A. R.P, station and stopped at the pub on the way and heard the car blow up while he was consuming M 3 beer. ■ • The best is the true story of the old woman who walked into the police station to tell the sergeant that aii unexplored delayed-action bomb had fallen in her garden. When asked if' she had moved out, and if she had informed the A.R.P. abbut it, she said, “Oh, no, I’ve brought it to yon!” and proceeded to unwrap a paper parcel.