LONDON BARRAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 250, 19 September 1940, Page 9

LONDON BARRAGE.

GENERAL’S SCHEME. SUCCESS AGAINST RAIDERS. LONDON, Sept. 13. The man hvho organised and perfected London’s new anti-aircraft barrage is Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Rile, Officer Commanding-in-Chief Anti-Aircraft Command. He believes in new methods and has introduced many. It is stated on excellent authority that the London gunners are the best in the world. Before the war London hail two divisions of Territorials devoted to anti-aircraft defence. These men were pioneers in mastering the art of the present new type of defences for London and other cities. . As this barrage is developed it is expected to yield even better results than have been obtained in the past two nights. Details of the new method are officially stated to be necessarily secret. All the reports of what was, in effect, its first try-out, have not yet reached the Royal Air Force authorities, but the results of the first performances are regarded as highly successful. It is already apparent that by far the larger quantity of metal which fell oh London roofs and streets was not from German bombs, but anti-aircraft shell splinters. One novel result of this shrapnel shower from the “tonic barrage” is that thousands of people are now the proud possessors of souvenir shell fragments which they use as uaper-weights.