MIMIC AIR RAIDING

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 9

MIMIC AIR RAIDING

REALISTIC GERMAN SCENE. DISCIPLINE OF THE PEOPLE. By Telegraph— Press Assn.—Copyright London, March 21. The Berlin air raid rehearsal was the most elaborate ever carried out, 50,000 residents participating in deadly earnest, writes Mr. Ward Price in the Daily Mail. Sirens blared simultaneously with the appearance of air raiders. Traffic stopped and everyone rushed to the underground shelters, deserting trains and buses. Maroons exploded representing bombs, and every kind of rescue service was engaged, police, fire, ambulance, antipoison gas, water and gas main repair squads, and house-breaking gangs rescuing victims trapped in the ruins of houses and schools. “Bomb craters” appeared in the streets from which flames and water spurted from burst pipes. Asbestos-clad masked squads rushed to extinguish gas fires and others worked knee-deep in water to repair the mains. Scores of “wounded” were carried from the streets, “ghastly wounds" and bare limbs increasing the realism. Steel-hel-meted children raced to fire stations to report homes ablaze. Foreign air attaches were specially impressed hy the P e °Pl e ’ s magnificent discipline and the vast amount of anti-air raid equipment available, contrasting with the smaller supplies in other capitals. Hollywood could not have excelled in dramatic perfection the picture of an air raid presented by Kreuzberg. It was impossible to imagine a corresponding are a in London similarly isolated for 3J hours. _____