BLACKOUT PLANS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 285, 21 March 1941, Page 5

BLACKOUT PLANS

COMMENCEMENT NEXT WEEK INSTRUCTIONS PUBLISHED Notice is gi'ven in this iissue that the reduction of lighting' in Whakatane is to commence next week, and the attention of . all readers is drawn to the advertisement appearing on the first page of this issue. The main effects the committee established locally to prepare a scheme for the town wishes to bring about are (1) completely obscuring nil lights showing seawards, and (2) eliminating sky glow resulting from concentrated lighting. The decisions of the local committee regarding the scheme arc in line with those of other towns similar,4 ly placed to Whakatane, and in a number of the other centres the reduction of light has been in op-i eration for some time.

BRITISH BLACKOUTS VALUABLE EFFECTS NC DIRECTION FOR PLANES Black-out regulations are irksome, but in the Old Country once householders understood the need for making efficient any precautions taken, all thought of inconvenience vanished. Safety if. better than comfort. The black-out, it was explained is not designed to protect one home, but to protect vital targets and tr, save lives. To achieve this it must sufficiently complete to prevent accurate navigation, aimed bombing, or to make unaimed bombing a totally haphazard affair. Observation from the Aix. The general application of the scheme is to cul down lighting in large towns so that the outline is obscured to such an extent that it cannot be recognised:—in other words, so that small towns look like villages and villages disappear entirely, or look like single cottages. Lights on roads and railways arc also reduced to deprive enemy airmen of navigational aids. In Britain, the policy adopted by the authorities was to produce n complete blackout as a basis and then, whenever possible, to grant relaxations which were decided upon by trial from the air. Incidentally, it may be of interest to know that the normal peace-time lighting of a town can be seen by the pilot of an aircraft more than 30 miles away in conditions favourable to him. Experiments carried out before the Avar shoAved that adequate AA Tartime amenity lighting Avas visible at 10,00'0 feet, from a distance of 10 miles. Lighting Avhich Avas of value to pede.Mrians could be seen at 2000 ft from one mile, AA'hile motor car lights, improperly screened, have been seen at 10,000 ft from 7 or 8 miles. In a reasonably clear night a pocket torch, carelessly used, and raised above the horizontal, can give away position to aircraft 6000 ft up at a distance of three miles, and the ordinary sitting-room light is visible at 10,000 ft some four or five miles aAvay. The area of a city may be so large that it Avill always be located from the air, but by means of effective black-out, the outline can be blurred and roads made so difficult to trace that eA r en aimed bombing will not be profitable. Why Villages Were Bombed. In Britain, it was found that the country black-out generally was good, but cases Avere reported where bombing of villages Avas directly attributable to the fact that lights had not been properly screened. One of the factors helping to put the Nazi bombers off their targets m Britain at night is the effective black-out whic.h hampers the navigators, and this has been secured by a strict application of black-out rules. These rules have, saved thousands of lives, and they have protected \ r aluable factories AAorking on munitions.