1941-01-09 — Page 41

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THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 9, 1941.

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R.A.F. HAS CARD BOMB

INDEX OF DAMAGE

ENEMY DEFENCES IN CITY

were

Westminster Cathedral, Westminster City Hall THE TELEPHONE rings on the anti-aircraft and the Temple liaison officer's desk. "Intelligence here. We're among buildings damag- bombing Adolphshaven to-night." "Right. I'll leted in a recent air raid, it you know in five minutes the latest stuff I have." was disclosed in London

lost night.

The officer walks to a map on the wall and quickly lays off the course between the bomber sta tion and the objective, no.es the names of places on the route, and then gets busy with a filing cabinet on his desk.

He is m the uniform of a major of artillery Usually he is hun- self an aufi-aircraft gunner of long experience, and the wings on his khaki nic show that he has seen service with the R.A.P. the R.F.C., writes a London correspondent,

air

His job is to have available for the Intelligence Department the Bomber Group all possible information about the enemy's ground defences.

He is frequently able to sug- gest ways of avoiding A.A. fire. The officer obtains his informa- tion from a variety of Sources, but mainly from the reports made by air crews.

They Note Flak

ccasionally, he attends

the

quesboming of the crews, but mostly he studies their reports. Here and there he picks out sentence:

(A.A. fire)

11-

"Intense fak 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 8,00ft around Hermannsdort."

All this information is carefully extracted and transferred to the 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 bc. 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 sbct 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 nows about the decreasing efficiency of German anti-air- craft fire. As the Germang overran Europe, so the area thoy had to defend increased en- ormously, reducing the intensity of fire at home bas06.

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 H.M.S. Hardy who was killed when the British. destroyer led the world-famous attacks on German warships in Narvik Flord last April..

He died at the side of his com mander, Captain Warburton-Lee, who himself dled of wounds.““

"She is delighted that it'■ a boy," her father, Major: Denis

· Burke, told a reporter.

Mr. Cross already has a little

boy, Denis, Charles, who is two and a half years old.

Several incendiaries and

"STREET" TAKES IT high explosive bomb fell on the

CALMLY