THE CHINA MAIL SUPPLEMENT; NOVEMBER 1, 1940:
What I Saw Of The Effects
Of Bombing!
FROM reports and photographs tees execute. It business is trans. purpose at present may be.
L
those in distant parts of the acted. Its work is done. Its mil- acquire a knowledge of desert fly- world may tend to visualise Lon- lions are-fed, transported and pro- ing and to recognise the targets don partly in ruins or at least tected. Its roads and railways are on its face..
showing terrible signs of damage, For a building destroyed is news, A building left standing is not. Naturally it is pictures of what is damaged, not what is intact, that are given circulation.
its
open and,*except when darkness. offers raiders easy hiding. skies are its own too.
Moreover, damage once done is not damage for, all time. A rail- way viaduct may be hit in the small hours. By nightfall trains may be passing over once again..
This week I visited London, which, for reasons unconnected
There is a further fact about with the war, I had not seen since the heavy raids began. Travelling these raids on London which is up by a slow train on a bright clear morning, I confess I ex- fundamental and has not received pected to see. many traces of the attention which its importance raiders as one looked over wide deserves. stretches roofs down innumer-- able streets.
Night ralds, other things being All I saw on a journey via the equal, are clearly very poor sub- suburbs were some broken. win- dows in a typical small poor street... and two or three houses, which.. had collapsed under the blast of a bomb which, had fallen some yards from them.
By Major General Sir Chas Gwynn
stitutes for the day, when targets In the heart Clubland not-and damage can both be seen. even a broken window could be seen in the few streets through. But for all practical purposes which I walked. Except for the there are no day-raids on Lon- familiar precautionary measures...” everything was normal. Though a don. Why? Because day-raids raid warning had sounded people have been tried and have failed. were going about their business. They have been defeated, indeed and one noticed that car parks crippled, by the incomparable Ho
yal Air Force. were filled to over-flowing.
Of course serious damage had. This perhaps is the outstanding been done in places, but they have feature of the war in its present to be looked for. By day at least phase and may well also be the the visitor is in fact mainly im- decisive development of the whole pressed by the normality of Lon- war. don and by the very high per- centage of its area which stands intact and in fact showing no trace of the nightly raids.
Turn to the
*
enemy's 'side of
the picture. Here we find evidence of the increasing offensive power of the Royal Air Force.
The R.A.F.'s attacks on what üre known as "invasionports" continue with increasing inten- sity,
✡
**
the
Italian naval action. and movement of merchant shipping marked by ex- continue to be treme caution.
General de Gaulle's attempt to West enlist support in French Africa has unfortunately failed and it has resulted in another re- Government's forces which opened grettable clash with the Vichy fire on British ships. General de Gaulle was determined to avoid fighting Frenchmen and when it was clear he would meet with re- attempt was inevitable. sistance the abandonment of his
of
Britain's essential interest
course, to prevent Dakar falling though German agents have ap-
under German control: But al-
.
parently been active at Dakar, the Vichy Government insists that it will not be used as a Ger- man base. If it were used as a base for U-boats, surface vessels and aircraft, it': would constitute a serious menace to British sea communications with and round the Caper
The action of British ships in replying to the fire from Dakar was, however, in no sense an at- tempt to capture the port; The in- cident is regrettable but it does not materially alter the situation, which remains unsatisfactory.but not necessarily menacing.
There are in Britzin now many representatives from all over her Empire, all of whom are anxious to do their utmost:: to hasten the ultimate victory. Amongst these, the New Zea fanders are by, no-mears in the minority and a contingent of them are at present;in training, in the : Aldershot. Command. Photo:shows, a row of smiling faces at the tent door: an accurate. Indication of the spirit of these men who are now prepared to fight for the Empire they have helped to build, (Capyright, Fox.)
The Way Of A Bomb LIPS THAT MEN
It would indeed be very wrong to minimise the seriousness or in-
Setting out a reasoned code of longer time. This vacuum pulls deed, for many families, the per-
behaviour for the guidance of the down the already shattered walls, sonal tragedy of the attack on
civilian population in an air raid windows, doors, etc., outward into London. When you come across it
and breathing the spirit of con- the street below, whereupon the fidence in the Empire's ability to building, if it is of the weight the damage may in itself be ter- ribly dramatic. A couple of big
win the war, a four-page pain- bearing or frameless type, col- Regency houses were clipped out Apart from their preventive phlet entitled "You Can be Safe lapses upon itself as the walls no clean from the great and beauti value they must cause much loss in an Air Raid" tells the reader longer support the floor joists. ful terrace. Half a dozen shops of life and morale in the enemy's what to expect and what to do in were knocked into ruins and ranks. For ports must at all the variety of situations he might glass was spilled over a wide times be scenes of activity with be in when an air raid takes circle by a bomb. A crater in a working parties and permanent place. famous street was large enough to hide. a small house in-for those who love..London these are not pretty sights.
Nor frankly is it any fun at all to "go to the ground" in a shelter, at dusk, to sleep in the racket in danger until light brings security -again. Fear is not a pleasurable emotion and many have learned what it is for the first time:
detachments in charge of shipping or in readiness to deal with fires.
The moral effect of suspense on troops awaiting zero day over an ever-lengthening period even if casualties are not heavy must be considerable.
The pamphlet opens with a short description of an air raid and the ways of a bomb, and des- cribes in detail what the public should do when either in a build- ing or in the open during a raid. Stress is laid on the necessity for rehearsing the elementary proce- dure given in the pamphlet.
.
.✡
If the building is of the framed type, ie, one consisting of a con- crete of steel framework with re- inforced concrete, floors filled in with not too substantial panels of brickwork which will give without transmitting severe blast pressure to the framework, the blast at- tacks the walls, windows, doors etc., just the same, but as the walls are not supporting the building the columns, and floor remain in-. tact even if the walls, are blown out by the blast. Hence the pre- for framed structure.
Raids on Berlin and other, cen-. tres have not been relaxed in spite of the concentration, on invasion. When a bomb is released from ference ports.
an aeroplane, it does not drop buildings when taking refuge in a vertically, but follows a curved building or shelter during an air path before-striking the object, or raid..........
Since the effect of high explo-` earth; states, the pamphlet.
Here the humour, realism and, a of course, the indomitable cour. On the Egyptian frontier the age of the English, be they men Italian advance has halted for a or women, young or old, are com- time. There are still many miles pletely meeting the situation.
of desert to cross before it comes in collision with General Wilson's main army. The Navy, RAF. and General Wilson's light forces are meanwhile. harassing Graziani's attempts to establish depots along his route.
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For example, a plane travelling sive is lateral and slightly up- at 300 miles per hour at a height wards, side protection is the most of 25,000 feet above the ground important and for this purpose at would, in order to ensure reach least 132 inches of brickwork.or ing a particular objective, have to its equivalent is necessary to pro- release its bombs 42 seconds or tect you from splinters and blast-balanced lipstick that intensifies 17,200 feet before it reaches its from a 500-lb. bomb bursting 50 objective; that is, if a bomb is not feet away, the thicker the better. already making for you, which While it is not economical to German aircraft are reported to you will easily be able to recog- build a structure to give protec- Italians but so nise, as bombs fall with a terri- tion from a direct hit, it is neces- have joined the long as the attack on Britain pro- ble screech, you will be safe from sary to build overhead protection ceeds and-invasion preparations bombs when an enemy aeroplane to give protection from splinters
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As for material damage it must be measured, and given its due importance by the fact that Lon don is carrying on as the capital and the political, administrative, industrial, commercial and intel- lectual headquarters of Britain.
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When a high explosive bomb The splinters from a 500-lb.. falls, It penetrates to a depth de bomb bursting 50 feet away re- pending upon the nature of the quire 6 inches of concrete or-131% substance struck and on the na- inches of brickwork or 11⁄2 inches ture of the bomb itself. Then it or steel plate to stop them. There explodes, breaking into thousands fore it is safer inn. building, of fragments or splinters, the bull especially a well constructed one; of: which fly out laterally and than in the open, for the main slightly upwards, ie., the main walls of the average building will
danger does not come from over stop the splinters. a dirent hit 15
a.most important thing to remem- small, but the chance that a bomb ber. At the same time an "ex--will explode. near you...is many plosive force, of blast is created in times greater, and since the effect the surrounding air. This consists of high explosive is lateral and of pressure which exerts a slightly upwards, the greatest maximum force away from the danger is at ground level where bomb, pushing and cracking the there is the danger from blast, walls, windows, doors, etc.splinters and the debris from As the pressure Insta, for only falling, buildings whilst the least 1/500th part of a second, its main danger is underground in a pro- effects consist in fcracking those perly; constructed, refuge, room,
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