THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 9, 1941.
R.A.F. HAS CARD CYCLE FOR
INDEX OF ENEMY DEFENCES
THE TELEPHONE rings on the anti-aircraft liaison officer's desk.
We're
"Intelligence here. bombing Adolphshaven to-night." "Right. I'll let you know in five minutes the latest stuff I have."
The officer walks to a map on the wall and quickly lays off the course between the bomber sta tion and the objective, notes the names of places on the route, and then gets busy with a filing cabinet on his desk,
He is in the uniform of a major of artillery. Usually he is hun- self an anti-aircraft gunner of long experience, and the wings on his khaki tunic show that he has seen service with the R.A.F. the R.F.C., writes a London correspondent.
Ot
T
His job is to have available for the Intelligence Department of the Bomber Group all possibl.. information ground defences.
RESORT'S 5CWT.
COAL RATION
and
Householders in Brighton Hove who already have more than half a ton of coal, coke or boiler fuel in stock will not be able to buy any further supplies.
BOY FRIEND
A boy who for the last. six years has never missed one day in calling on a lonely crippled old bachelor has been remembered in the old man's will.
He has been left a sum, not exceeding 10, for what he has always wanted--a bicycle,
The bequest Is made in the £4,431 will of Mr. George Fre- terick Jennch Rosenberg, of St. Ives, Cornwall, formerly a master at King's School, Canterbury.
Beneficiary is David Vaughan Parker, fifteen-year-old son of Lieutenant and Mrs. Albert John Parker, of Trenwith Bridge, St. Ives.
Mr. Rosenberg, who died last July, at the age of seventy, was crippled with rheumatism and unable to get about.
TC-
Mr. Rosenberg loved children, especially boys, and always membered David and his brothers and sisters at Christmas time.
SPOTTERS AT ETON
Those who have less than that amount may purchase up to a maximum of 5ewt, a fortnight Spotters are employed at Eton Whether the supplies will he College now, so that lessons may
depends continue about the enemy's further restricted later
on the amount of coal received | sounded, from the collieries, the authori- whistle signals when hostile air- ties state.
craft approach.
He is frequently able to aug- gest ways of avoiding A.A. fire. The officer obtains hus informa- tion from a variety of sources, but mainly from the reports made by ale crews,
They Note Flak
Occasionally.
he attends
the
questioning of the crews, but mostly he studies the reports. Here and there be picks out sentence:
1
"Intense flak (A.A. fire) en- countered from a gun on the mole at Quelqueville."
"Searchlights, 12 to 15 in num- ber, at 51.20 N., 05.30 W." "25-30 balloons between 4,000ft, and 6,00ft. around Hermannsdort,”
All this info.mation is carefully extracted and transferred to the 1 cards in the filing cabinet. Ad- ditional information is often sup- plied from photographs.
Before calling back the station which has asked for information, the flak officer rings Bomber Command to see whether any further information has come in.
He is then able to give out all that is known about guns. searchlights and balloons be- tween the R.A.F. base and the night's target,
The flak officer is continually on the look-out for evidence of new types of enemy guns or projec- tiles. When a bomber
returns
with damaged wings or fuselage,
• he studies the holed fabric or me- tal to find out what type of gun was used.
Splinters of shells become trea- sured possessions.
First Shot Best
He is able to pass on to new crews the experience gained by the old hands, He will tell them not to judge the accuracy of an anti-aircraft gun battery by the first salvo, for the first shot is generally the best.
He advises them about “jink- ing" and "snaking" terms used to describe the up-and-down and side-to-side movements employ- ed to escape bursts of fire from the German guns, which throw shells up to 25,000ft.
The flak officer has cheering news about the decreasing efficiency of German anti-air- craft fire. As the Germang overran Europe, so the area they had to defend increased en- ormously, reducing the intensity of fire at home bases.
There is also evidence that the ranks of the gunners are being swelled with hastily-trained, in- experienced men."
SON OF A DEAD HERO
A Narvik hero's wife has given birth to a son seven months after her. husband's death.
She is Mrs. Geraldine Cross, wife of Lieutenant C. P. W. Cross, radio officer in HMS. Hardy "who was killed when the British
destroyer led the world-fāmous attack on German warships in Nervik Flord last April,"
He died at the side al-his-com- "mander, Captain Warburton-Lee,
who himself died of wounts,
"She is delighted that 'it's a. "boy," her father, Majór Denis
Burke, told 'n reporter. Me Mr. Gross already has a little.
Denis, Charles, who is two Valhalf years old.
the after
Alert will Wardens
has give
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