BOMB PRACTICE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22476, 11 January 1943, Page 4

BOMB PRACTICE

Novel Test For E.P.S. First Full-Scale Exercise A full-scale exercise with live bombs, the first of its kind in New Zealand, will be carried out near Wanganui between Saturday, January 30, and Monday, February 1. The No. 2 Company Bomb Disposal Group, an Army unit with headquarters in Wellington. the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and certain civil defence personnel from Wanganui will co-operate. Aircraft will drop five 1201 b bombs which, though loaded, will be without pistols or exploders. Their fall will be observed by E.P.S. Law and Order wardens who will communicate immediately with Wanganui headquarters. A call will subsequently be sent to the Bomb Disposal Group in Palmerston North, personnel of which will carry out the task of removing the bombs. This exercise will be carried out in a locality far removed from the nearest habitation, but for the purposes of the test it will be presumed that the bombs have landed on a built-up area such as Wanganui. Further wardens will be dispatched to the locality as required. They will carry out hyphothetical evacuation and keep the area clear of unauthorised persons. The duration of the exercise is not known, but it will possibly start early on the Saturday morning. Wardens will be sent out in relays to relieve those who have been on duty longer than an allotted period. Details of transport arrangements will be made at E.P.S. headquarters in Wanganui. At this stage it is expected that, apart from certain headquarters staff, wardens will be the only E.P.S. personnel taking part in the exercise, but final details have yet to be arranged. The city alarm system will not be used. The object in dropping bombs which will not explode will be two-fold n character. It. will give the Bomb Disposal Group further practice in handling live material and will provide E P.S. wardens with actual experience of the duties they would be required to carry out if bombs failed to explode during a raid. Wardens on duty at the area where the bombs are dropped will call on the bomb priority officer, attached to E.P.S. headquarters, Wanganui, for what assistance they require. This officer will communicate with the Army group in Palmerston North. If the latter require aid it will be drawn from similar personnel located in Napier, New Plymouth and Wellington. Provision will also be made for normal channels of communication being disrupted.