BERLIN AIR RAID

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 March 1935, Page 5

BERLIN AIR RAID

REALISTIC REHEARSAL ON AN ELABORATE SCALEPress Association Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received Friday, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, Thursday. Mr Ward Price, in the “Daily Mail,” says the Berlin air raid rehearsal was the most elaborate ever carried out, some 50,000 residents participating in deadly earnest. Sirens blared simultaneously with the appearance of the air raiders, and traffic was stopped. Everyone rushed to underground shelters, deserting buses and trams. Maroons were exploded, representing bombs. Every kind of rescue service was engaged, police, fire, ambulance, antipoison gas, water • gas main repair squads and housebreaking gangs, rescuing victims trapped in the ruins of houses and schools. “Bomb craters” appeared in 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 repairing mains. Scores of “wounded” were carried in the streets, “ghastly wounds” and bare limbs increasing the realism. Steelhelmeted children raced to fire stations to report that their homes were ablaze. Foreign air attaches were specially impressed at the people’s magnificent discipline. A vast amount of anti-air raid equipment was available, contrasting with the smaller supplies of other capitals. Hollywood could not have' excelled the dramatic perfection of the picture of an air raid which was presented. It was impossible to imagine a corresponding area of London similarly isolated for hours.