GULLS GIVE ALARM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 225, 14 October 1940, Page 2

GULLS GIVE ALARM

BIRDS DETECT RAIDERS BEFORE A.A. DEFENCE MIGRATION TO THE SEA The way in which an anti-aircraft battery on the coast receives Warnings from seagulls of the approach oi enemy 'planes is described by Robert Casey. London correspondent of the Chicago Daily News in an article from a south-cast port which lie calls "Hotspot, England." He writes: 'The. anti-aircraft battery commander looked up from his rangelinder and lent an ear to the noise of the swirling seagulls, a din that almost drowned the sounds of the air raiders high in the clouds. One gull, which got the most of the captain's attention, sat on a clump of barbed wire and laughed insultingly, "Heh, heh, heh!" "That" is the smartest bird, in England," said the captain, admiringly. "They are all smart. They are our best intelligence service. But this one is the best of the lot." The air war in this area has re-* cently gone so far alolt that ground observers seldom see any of it and j artillery fire is directed largely by sound. Better Than Geese. "You may remember hearing that the geese 1 " saved Rome," said the cap tain, discussing this phenomenon. "Well, geese may have been all right for ground flights, but for air warfare give me the good old seagulls. "What the Germans are trying to do up there is more than I can tell you. They are too high to se<f anything. "The "planes may be up so high

that we can hardly hear them; so 3 high that we cannot'be sure of their 3 direction. But the birds know. When t the Germans come over the birds 5 go out to sea. When the Germans " go home the birds come back." As he spoke the white cloud of 1 gulls spread out. toward mid-Chann-nel. Indistinctly a murmur of plane engines came down from the high battlefield. One bird remained—the humorist. "What about him?" somebody asked. "He knows about bombing," said the captain. "He learned the other day that when a bomb explodes in the water it lulls fish and he is not only smart but lazy."