LIKE A SUMMER THUNDERSTORM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16037, 23 January 1918, Page 3

LIKE A SUMMER THUNDERSTORM.

AN AIR RAID ON LONDON. Describing an air raid on London, Mr. Frank W. Getty. writing in the Now York Tribune, says:— “Like a summer thunderstorm an air raid comes upon London. There is a distant rumbling of coast guns, with occasional flashes of light just over the horizon. People in the streets begin scurrying for shelter. Those far from homo have to decide whether to risk cover in the nearest building. In a short while shrapnel, line the light drops of rain, that precede a violent storm, begins to patter down. The last few stragglers get undercover, and with a suddenness that startles the storm breaks.

“A great white flash of light, followed by the terrific crash of a bomb. Then" a thundering roar as dozens of guns blaze forth. The noise reverberates through the sky and rumbles along the deserted streets. Electric lights wink and blink and sometimes go out. Shutters rattle and window panes shake with the concussion. Shrapnel ,pelts down in a veritable shower, punctuated now and then with a more brilliant flash and the deeper crash of explosives. It is the noise that frightens most people. The deafening detonations as th» aerial battle reaches its height overhead set people shivering and' trembling in their basements or hastily improvised dugouts on tho ground floor. If one stays under cover there is no danger from the rain of shrapnel, and only an infinitesimal chance of being struck by the lightning of a bomb.

“Gradually the battle of noises drifts off to the eastward and out over the sea. Shrapnel no longer falls, and the lightning strikes further and further away each time. One can counti the seconds between the flashes and the nimble which follows. Windows go up and heads are thrust out. Everyone is asking his neighbour: “Did they strike near here? Is it all over?” Traffic is resumed in the streets. The stars come out from behind the haze of smoke. The moon bathes the city in peaceful radiance. It might have been only a thunderstorm after all. •