SECRET LONDON DEFENCES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 98, 20 January 1943, Page 5

SECRET LONDON DEFENCES

Tested On Nazis GREAT CHANGES REPORTED

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Received January 19, 9.50 pan.) LONDON, January 18.

A German who was aboard one of the raiders over London on Sunday night has revealed in a broadcast that the raiders met with a "wire barrage." He said that the flak was tremendous, but the night-fighters were the worst problem. The "Daily Mail” says that the nightmare barrage which routed the Luftwaffe over London on Sunday was the result of months of planning by some of Britain's best scientific brains, and it contained some closelyguarded military secrets. New weapons were used for the first time and new methods were tried out which foxed the raiders and forced many of them to turn off at the outskirts of the city.

Tlie great changes followed largescale experiments. When puzzled Londoners recently watched searchlights chasing bombers while the guns were silent they were unwittingly spectators of important tests. When the Luftwaffe appeared, there were spectacular happenings overhead. Shells burst in close pattern round the raiders, lighting the sky with a red glow. London is now one of the world’s most strongly defended cities, and the defences are improving all the lime. Almost all the still-secret guns are manned by Home Guards, who are on duty one night in eight. „ . , Central Control.

The master-mind behind the barrage was a high army officer in a controlroom deep below central London, llus officer controlled ali the guns as a conductor directs an orchestra; he spoke into a microphone, and his orders were echoed in the gun sites from loudspeakerßadiolocation, which has made great strides since the blitz, enabled the A. 1.8. to plot a course in the control-room on a mail telling the G.O.C. exactly what the gone bad to contend with. The “Daily Telegraph” says that anti-aircraft shells which did not explode till hitting the ground, and also shell-splinters, killed 23 and injured 60 persons on Sunday night. People 30 miles from London felt the ground tremble when the barrage was at its height. The Germans today raided a town on the south-east coast of England, resulting in lio casualties but heavy damage.