RAIDS ON CANTON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 242, 12 October 1937, Page 7

RAIDS ON CANTON

ALMOST DAILY HAPPENING WELLINGTONIAK’S LETTER Experiences in the first Japanese air raids on Canton about three weeks ago are described by Mrs. Reo Fortune (nee Miss Eileen Pope), of Wellington, in a letter to her parents. Mrs. Fortune was married a few weeks ago, and arrived in Canton, where her husband, also a Wellingtonian, has a post at Lingnan University, shortly after the first visit by the Japanese raiders to that city. •‘Canton has been bombed several times; in fact, it is almost a daily occurrence,” Mrs. Fortune wrote on September 20. “The first raid, which I missed, as I was still on the boat, must have been frightful but then Canton did not expect it and was unprepared. Now everything is organised. The people were awakened by the roar of the bombing ’planes soaring over, the pop-pop-pop of the antiaircraft guns, and the noise of the warning sirens, all at once. My husband and others dashed outside and watched the Japs. There was no resistance at all—except by the guns, for the Chinese aviators were all asleep.

“The first bomb dropped was a 500pounder, which made the most deafening roar and dug a hole about 25 feet deep in the grounds of the Sun Yatsen University, next to the aerodrome. Incidentally, there have been two or three universities bombed in this war, but each time it has been the case that they have been near a military objective, as the Sun-Yat-sen University and Nanking University. There is no reason why they should bomb Lingnan; it is away by itself and has American affiliations. But we certainly get dress-circle seats for some of the raids. To-day, for instance, the windows rattled like anything, although the raiders have never repeated the incident of the 500pounder since the first day. They are too expensive, and you cannot carry enough of them to make it worth while when they have to go a long distance. Still, with the boom of the bombers and the lighter sound of the pursuit ’planes, the bang-bang of the anti-aircraft guns, and the pop-pop-pop of the machine-guns it is quite a good entertainment. Chinese Efficiency. “We have always felt pretty safe, though, as all arrangements are most efficiently made nowadays and the police are extraordinarily careful. Each day there is some new regulation. If we go outside the place, for instance in Canton, we have to wear a badge, for they lock the gates during a raid and would not re-admit you unless you had one, in case you let off flares in the university grounds to guide the Japs. Also, anyone using a “shoot-lamp” (torch) during a raid will be put in gaol on suspicion of treachery. All lights in houses are permanently heavily shaded. We have been warned that our lights are too bright, hence more shading to-day.” The writer goes on to describe the safety precautions in an air raid, and state.; that usually those at the univei\>;., ;to a safe building, but S 0!,: •. io their own basements. “There L about one raid a day,” she writes, “although to-day we have had two.” Apparently at this stage of writing the unexpected happened, for Mrs. Fortune breaks off and later adds, “We’ve now had four in about 24 hours (one at 6 a.m., then another caught us out in our own basement, another last night from 2.30 a.m., and now one at 7.10 a.m.). Not Much Effect From Raids. An hour later she resumes: “Really, how can I get letters written with this sort of treatment? Because, of course, one has to try to make up a little sleep during the day and then there is the heat to contend with. However, the period of the last 24 hours or so will probably be one of the worst. (Ah, there’s the ‘all clear’ siren). Last night there was a lovely bright moon, and the Japs had planned a big ‘do’ against Nanking and Canton, but they are not getting much out of it. It is hard to get news that is reliable, but out of about 15 ’planes that came over yesterday afternoon I believe they lost five or six, and last night they were supposed to have had about 30, but it seems they wasted a lot of petrol for nothing much done. It was the most curious raid we have had yet. They just buzzed around and hardlydropped a bomb, and yet they stayed for longer than usual. At the beginning we thought all the Chinese aircraft must be away raiding, leaving the place to the anti-aircraft, but 1 don’t think that was so; they probably didn t want to waste ammunition unless they saw a sure hit. . . Someone saw a duel between two ’planes. In the end the Japanese departed just before dawn, but another lot came at about 7 a.m. By then a morning mist had come up which hid them from us and us from them and made use feel safer.”