RUSSIANS PLAY AT WAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 377, 11 June 1928, Page 9

RUSSIANS PLAY AT WAR

PREPARING FOR BRITISH SEVERAL ACCIDENTS (United P.A. — By Telegraph — Copyright) (United Service) Reed. 9.15 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. It is reported, via Helsingfors, that military manoeuvres proceeding on a large scale in the neighbourhood of Leningrad consist chiefly of airplane and gas attacks, to discover how best to repulse the British air raids. A large part of Leningrad is enveloped with clouds of smoke. Intensive artillery fire Is being carried out. Several accidents are reported. Times Gable. The Riga correspondent of “The Times” says the Soviet has published the results of the air attack. Gas-masks were widely distributed. Ship sirens, locomotives and factory hooters, and church bells gave the alarm. Only a few of the public rushed to the cellars as instructed, the majority treating the affair as an ordinary street spectacle. The “enemy” dropped gas bombs, which were harmless but odorous. Simulating reality, gas-masked police, firemen, and Red Cross workers were mobilised, ready to carry off the casualties by stretcher. Fled airplanes attacked the blue machines of the “enemy.” Despite the air fight outside Leningrad, the planes appeared over the city, bombed the Puriloff works and factories and caused fires. They then retired, fusilladed by anti-aircraft guns. Apparently the performance failed to reach the specifications, only 30 airplanes participating, though the commandant says it was satisfactory, demonstrating great improvement.