BRITAIN WITHSTANDS SHOCK OF NAZI AIRBLITZ

Southland Times, Issue 24326, 6 January 1941, Page 6

BRITAIN WITHSTANDS SHOCK OF NAZI AIRBLITZ

CALMNESS OF LONDONERS Horrors Of Bombing Described VIVID STORIES SENT TO AMERICA The courage of Londoners under the horror of the Nazi airblitz is the predominant note in a collection of letters received in America from London and published by The New York Times. The letters give a vivid account of the effects of German frightfulness in the air and the reaction of a free and democratic people to the horror imposed on them by the totalitarian enemy. NEW TECHNIQUE FOR SLEEPING From nn officer in London to a friend in New York. Preparation for bed is now quite a business in this household, but my wife and I have evolved a technique which goes quite smoothly. After we have heard the 9 o'clock news bulletin we set up, in the doorway of a room on the ground floor, a camp bed covered with a mattress and blankets for myself, and, in the doorway of an adjoining room, a chaise lounge similarly equipped for my wife.

The choice of doorways on the ground floor arose from a study of bombed houses, which shows that floors which suffer most are the first and second and that doorways seem to collapse last. The opened door of each of the rooms should act as a screen against flying glass and other fragments because the doorway is in the wall that is at right angles to the window wall.

Close to the heads of our temporary beds is placed a suitcase containing spare clothing, toilet gear, spectacles and so forth, which we can grab if we have to make a bolt for it on account of a time bomb being dropped in the immediate vicinity. Also, in order that we may face a cold and cruel world in the middle of the night with due regard to comfort and decency, we go to bed each clad in a siren suit, which is really a glorified overall. LIKE A TEDDY BEAR My wife is rude about my suit, which is of camel hair cloth. She says I look just like a teddy-bear in it. Anyhow it is nice and warm. In one pocket of each of the suits is a whistle, also supplied to maids, to be blown as a guide to rescuers if one is buried under masonry and in one pocket of mine is a box of omopon syringe ampoules for use in case the crushing is very painful. We put soft wax in our ears before turning out the light because the drone of planes and the crack of A.A. gunfire, which has to be heard to be believed, can keep one awake in a most tantalizing manner, and it is surely idiotic if one has no duty in the airraids to remain awake listening to the performance. Indeed I can well believe that the listening could get one down pretty badly in time. When we judge that the Boche has had his last go at London for the night we go upstairs to bed. In the last month we have had one v.'hole night in bed; generally it has been for from two to j four hours. You might ask why not see j it out downstairs? The answer is that l at an hour when we do not want to be I getting up maids are wanting to work ' on the parts of the house where we I have our temporary sleeping quarters. I STATE OF DEFENCE If reparations could be exacted, I might reasonably claim to be supplied j with the free labour of one Hun for at | last one year in consideration of the ex- i pense to which his people have put me I in putting the house into a state of ■ defence. I

First there was the roof of the kitchen, a one-storied annex, which was covered with one layer of corrugated iron and one of sandbags, the whole being covered with a waterproof roofing material to keep the sandbags as dry as possible. This was protection against incendiary bombs. Then the loft was painted with a fire-resisting material and floored with asbestos sheets.

The windows have cost many pounds in experiments to make them splinterproof. First we tried strips of brown paper criss-cross, then ditto cellophane, then painting with cellulose solution, and finally for most windows covering them with cotton gauze. The last has been used for windows with shutters. For those not so well protected we have strong close mesh wire netting so I am hopeful that nobody’s throat will be cut with flying glass. EFFECT ON SCHOOLS From a British science teacher to his brother in the United States. School is still unassembled. We still don’t know where we are going to. The business of evacuation has become less simple, for post, train and telephone are all much slower than usual, and many of the places we might go to have been taken as barracks or as hospitals.

There were two occasions when we were awakened by a bang louder than the rest, accompanied by the tinkling of broken glass. The first occasion was the most exciting. It was an oil incendiary bomb and it was only about twenty yards away. It fell near a neighbouring house, just off the school premises, blew in the front door and started a vigorous little fire in the hall. This might easily have grown into a big one, if the school “garrison” had not been ready for that sort of thing. The brigade was summoned, but the fire was out before it arrived. The second occasion was a bigger bang. It was quite a heavy H. E. bomb this time and it fell about 200 yards away, making a hole in the road about fifteen feet in diameter and using a good big proportion of its energy in producing what is called “blast.” Blast does not usually knock down solid buildings, except at very close range, but it does break windows, so now a fair number of the school’s windows are “glazed” with wallboard or linoleum. But far more survived than were broken, for they mostly face the inside of a courtyard. The lab building also got a tweak of blast. It behaved, as it usually does, in a quite unreasonable manner. The chemistry department, with windows above street level, was left unharmed, while the semi-basement physics lab had its windows smashed, though they had been left open. The front door, which is quite a heavy one, was wrenched open, the lock being torn off and a brass bolt bent at right angles. All this hapepned about 300 yards from the explosion.

CASUALTIES HORRIFY SURGEON From a London woman surgeons letter, dated October 11 There is no use denying it, things are pretty grim. Not in the supply of food, from that point of view, one would hardly know that there was a war on. Riit this night bombing is really trying. There is considerable destruction and wanton damage. The other night at Epping they bombed a house full of expectant mothers. I had to deal with the casualties. I thought I was inured to most things, at times almost to the point of callousness, but never have I seen anything so terrible or horrible as the results of this. To have to amputate arms of pregnant women, as well as to deal with other horrible mutilations is an experience I hope never to have to go through again.

Of course thousands of people are homeless, mostly or largely from the East End, and have been sent into surrounding districts. Yet they show the utmost determination to stick it out—many of them look on it as the nature of things. They are cheerful, philosophical and plucky, almost to the point of idiocy. Many after two or three days return to the neighbourhood of their homes, now ruined if not completely destroyed, to stay with friends in the dangerous area. A. people like that cannot be beaten.

My own hospital had a wing demolished by a mine, the kitchen destroyed by a bomb, and the laundry burnt out by an incendiary. It is easier to count the number of hospitals which have escaped (very few), than those that have fallen victims. Happily the loss of life has, on the whole, been slight, thought of course mounting into many thousands.

Well, we’ve got to stick it out and beat these devils. How, it is a little difficult to foreshadow at the moment. No one even contemplates a negotiated peace—such an event is unthinkable, no matter what destruction or evil may befall us. There can be no doubt that should the Nazis even stave off defeat, the world would sink back into anarchy, immorality, and into an abyss of evil, from which there would be no escape, except by death which would be preferable. • CROWD CALM AS BOMB FALLS From a Londoner to his wife who is in New York with her two small children. “ On Tuesday I met Jack in the evening and we had a very pleasant., meal at the Corner House. Blitz time now is about 7.30 (it gets earlier roughly agreeing with lighting up time), so when I left them about 8.45 things were fairly noisy. I was waiting for a bus with about a dozen others when we heard a whistle. Some one said, “Here it comes,” and we all went flat on the pavement. The bomb landed some way away, followed by a second one a shade closer. As soon as it was clear that the entertainment was over every one got up, dusted themselves down, and went on waiting for a bus. It really was a scream. I’ve never seen a crowd of people more self-possessed. Anyone watching would have thought that going flat on the pavement while waiting for a bus was the most natural thing in the world and that they’d been i doing it all their lives. When I got in the train some one let I off some more bombs in the neighbour- i hood, one of which partly blocked the line, so we were all turned out and I spent the night in the air-raid shelter ■ in the office. However, the line was j clear the next morning so it could not: have been very bad. LIBERTY COMES FIRST) Excerpts from a recent letter from a i member of the Scottish Bar. We are indeed having a strenuous i time, and the wonderful thing is the j high spirit of determination which is i everywhere. I never hear a pessimistic I word, and to talk of defeat would be sure evidence of mental instability. ; On going down the street on Friday i evening I stopped to read a newsboy’s placard, “Hitler Goes East.” Just at my side two working-class girls also stopped to read the notice. I heard one say to the other: “Aye, he is safer to go i ‘East.’” That is the universal spirit. ; I' laid up the car when war broke j

out, so as to help by saving petrol, and have made a substantial payment to account of income tax, to become due next January, for which the demand notice has not yet been received. GenI erally we all do something of this kind I to help. 1 As my second daughter said: “What i does it matter if we are all killed or I left without a bean so long as Hitler is : be;/en. Better all dead and forgotten than that Michael (who is aged 1 year) should be brought up without liberty.” And there I think you have the voice 1 of all British mothers, and that is the ' spirit that Hitler did not take into acI count and which in the end will bring him down with a crash. We all feel for the Londoners, who have shown such great fortitude. Reprisals on civilians are useless and stupid. Lot us destroy their war machine. Mr Churchill was right when he said this some years ago. What we do want are planes and i more planes, and quick. PROPAGANDA NEEDED IN AMERICA * From a Londoner in reply to an offer ' ' of help: You so very kindly ask if there is ] anything you can do. It may surprise I you to know that there is. Not to i send us food, or clothes, or cash. Thank ; God, we have more than sufficient of > the two former things, and, despite I taxes (which for once in a while we’re I glad to be able to pay, because freedom j of mind and body is cheap at any price), j we still have enough money to meet our I needs.

The something you can do is to tell your pals that we in England are cheerfully confident; that nothing Germany can do can get us down, and thank them all for their good wishes and for everything the American Government is doing to help us win through. n If you would do this—and I know you will —you will be doing an important job that will really help us. I will tell you why. You and I know the value of publicity and propaganda. So, unfortunately, does Hitler. And he has built up a gigantic world-wide propaganda machine that lies and lies and lies. But, boy, oh boy! what a mistake he has made. The Germans were never very good at psychology, but this time they’ve made such a mistake that it will cost them the war. Cockneys who have been bombed out of their homes arc as cheerful (and as furious) as sparrows.

Honestly, it makes one weep tears of pride to see and hear the ordinary people in the street. They are a hundred times as strong morally as they 1 were when the airblitz on England | started. They say. “You can kill I women and children, machine-gun I harmless people in the streets, bring our I houses crashing about our ears, bomb > our hospitals—for a little while longer, i Then look out.” ! SLEEP AMID GUNS FIRING i From- an Englishwoman’s letter to I “Friends in America.” i My husband comes in each evening : looking a little tired, tie loves old London so, and it hurts him to see the Germans wantonly smashing buildings that were as harmless as they were beautiful or old and part of London’s history. At night we go to bed as usual, gun- : fire punctuating the seconds. We hear the triple engine of the bomber and we : know that the ballistics of the shell do not hold here, because the bomb , travels so much slower that its sound • may well reach the person it is going i to hit. As it whistles down one’s ear i and mind follow its growing .swishing I whistle and wonders. i The house rocks (one thinks “is the ! tool shed hit?”) and then the vibrations I still reaching us through the soles of I our feet or the four legs of the bed | reassure us that one is still alive . . . i but some poor family in the next lane : may not be. i One looks out to see if there is fire j so as to run and help if need be. All : is pitch black as the heart who willed to kill or frighten women and children. | But he doesn’t know English women i or children . . . And what does he know of family life? Or honest courage? Sometimes when the bomb is very very near we do not move or speak until the next one falls a few seconds later ... it will either be nearer or I farther away . . . We then call out: I ' “That was a close one!” and roll over | i to sleep despite the gun racket which

is reassuring rather than disturbing. On cold wet nights I always think with more gratitude of the brave men and women . . . boys and girls on duty in the open. They make us sure of victory and continued freedom.