FIRST AIR RAID ON ALEXANDRIA

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 82, 18 July 1941, Page 5

FIRST AIR RAID ON ALEXANDRIA

Canterbury Soldiers’ Experience “Actually we found it quite unexcit.ng, but it was interesting in' that, up to the time, it was our nearest approach o the war.” This reaction to the first tir raid on Alexandria, when 100 persons were killed and a large number injured, was described in a letter to a friend by Private B. James, Christchurch, who. with other Canterbury soldiers, was in the city when the attack was made.

‘‘We were in a cabaret at l lie time,” he writes, “and the only sign that something was amiss was a sudden lowering of the lights. At first there was a hushed air of expectancy limit the place, then the whisper became almost a shout: “Air Raid!’ Not quite knowing what best to do, we went into the street, which was absoutcly blacked out and crowded with hurrying people. “We proceeded toward the centre of the town, but before we arrived there came the thunderous concussion of antiaircraft tire. The streets by this time were deserted, and we took shelter in a friendly shop along with some carefree (frock sailors. Now the streets were lit up by the flashes of. the shells bursting in the sky, while now and again we heard the tinkle of shrapnel falling on the road. Once or twice a panicstricken mob of Wogs’ ran past screaming. Occasionally we heard a swish and had to resist the temptation to duck as a bomb from a raider landed some-

chore nearby. By and by the firing became more and more infrequent, and about an hour later a siren screamed I he 'All Clear. Thus we survived our first air raid.”