HERALDS OF ATTACK

Evening Star, Issue 23700, 7 October 1940, Page 10

HERALDS OF ATTACK

THE SEAGULLS OF ENGLAND The way in which an anti-aircraft battery on the coast receives warnings from seagulls of the approach of enemy planes is described by Robert Casey, London correspondent of the Chicago ‘ Daily News,’ in an article from a south-east port, which he calls “ Hotspot, England.” He writes: The anti-aircraft battery commander looked up from his range-finder 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 host of the lot.” The air war in this area has recently gone so far aloft that ground observers seldom see any of it, and artillery fire is directed largely by sound. “ You may remember hearing that the geese saved Rome,” said the captain, 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 see anything. “ The planes may be up so high that we can hardly hear them, so high that wo cannot be sure of their direction. But the birds know. When the Germans come over the birds go out to sea. When the Germans go home the birds come back.” As he spoke the white cloud of gulls spread out towards mid-Channel. Indistinctly a murmur of plane engines came down from the high battlefield. One bird remained —the humourist. “ 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 kills fish: and he is not only smart but lazy.”.