DOVER NIGHTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20660, 10 January 1942, Page 7

DOVER NIGHTS

SHELLS FROM FRANCE FLASH GIVES WARNING HIT-AND-RUN RAIDERS Life on the south-east coast of Britain, where the people look out qcross the Channel tq the shores of France,- is not particularly pleasant. American correspondents have givep the Dover area the name “Hell’p Corner,” and "the frequency with ‘ which’ it has been raided -by enemy aircraft and- .shelled by the Germab long-range guns across the Channel seem to justify the somewhat lurid description. Nevertheless, British people are living in and around Dover with thp same phlegmatic attitude towards their special danger that Londoners showed towards the terrific air raid;s of last year. As witness of this fact, Mr. J. Booth, Gisborne, has receive)! from, a brother there a letter in which the spirit of quiet and dogged resistance is epitomised. “Yes, we get the shells from thje long-range guns,” the writer states ip reply to a month-old inquiry. "Therie is no warning from those blighter j, except at night, when you can see thp flash and know that the shell will arrive about 70 seconds later. That gives one plenty of time to get under cover. But I don’t like the salvoes of four shells, which make a terrific crash. Right in Thick of Raid “A few evenings ago, my wife anjl I got right into the thick of it neap the Priory station. We were on thb way home when we heard the scream of a bomb, and threw ourselves tb the ground. As soon as it was down, We jumped up and hurried off, bu,t had only gone a few yards when another machine, evidently following the first, dropped a string of bombs.j “Again we went down, but this time they were only incendiaries, and there was no blast. Fire sprung up all round us, but it. was surprisingly ho\V speedily the bombs were put out or brought under control, with hand-bags and other devices. Some people even stamped them out. “We hurried on, and had got about 200yds past the railway station, when the planes came over again. Our people put up a very heavy barrage, and we ran into a friend’s house to shelter from the shrapnel. We got home before the fourth and last visit of the night, and had supper and went to bed.

Annoyance Raids Only

“The Battle of Britain, by air, is now very quiet. It is in what we call a ’hit-and-run’ stage, with two or three machines over at a time on what are called annoyance raids. These tactics are just to make out that Jerry is still doing something about us; and though they are worse on the coastline, they are soon over and back again. Unfortunately, it usually means some small loss of life here, and perhaps a couple of streets-down; but we soon get over it, and just carry on. “Most of our commodities are rationed, and nearly all foodstuffs have to be bought on the card; but thank goodness we can still buy bread ad lib. It is good bread, too, far better than in the last war. Nowadays it is an offence for a tradesman to wrap an article in paper, other than food, so every woman carries a shopping bag, and every man has a basket on his cycle carrier. We shall soon have to take a plate to the butcher’s.” The writer of the letter formerly spent a holiday in New Zealand, and will be remembered by many Gisbornites. His son, serving as a constable, lost his arm as a result of a shellburst, but continues his service with the force as a telephone operator.