AIR RAID NOISES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 128, 26 February 1940, Page 6

AIR RAID NOISES

ENGLISH EARS BEGIN TO LEARN

PICKING DIFFERENT SOURCES

The Avar is being fought on the home front to a far greater extent than any war in which England has been engaged for centuries. It is a war, too, in which the ears, as much as the eyes, will have to be exercised to detect and classify new sounds. "England hopes that the German people will put in Hitler's place a Government whose word we and thf»v can trust. Anfl if Mitler bombs our open towns he will do so in the hope cf creating panic and making us sue for peace," says Professor J. B. S. Haldane in the London Daily Sketch. Now, if there is a raid en a big town, only a fraction of the popu lation will be hit. A large fraction will have their windows broken or their houses slightly damaged. But everyone Avill hear the raids. In Bun.van's great story, "The Holy War,'' the giant Diabolus besieges the City of Mansoul, which has five gates, one for each sense. Some of his most successful attacks were against Ear-Gate. Each of us must protect the Ear-Gate of his or her own soul. If there is a raid on any of our big towns we shall first hear the sirens. Ten or I."> minutes later we may hear ex plosions. And many people will think {hev are hearing the bombs explode. They will almost certainly be wrong. The noise will be the sound o!' our own antiaircraft artillery putting up a barrage to keep the bombers away.