LONDON SAFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 948, 15 April 1930, Page 9

LONDON SAFE

MOCK AIR ATTACKERS EASILY REPELLED SCIENCE AIDS DEFENCES United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, Monday. Air manouevres which have been carried out in the past fortnight included mock raids upon London. These have been of the most intensive character since those of the Germans in the Great War. As a result of the experiments experts have decided that the defences of London are practically impenetrable. Royal Air Force machines were concentrated in a sustained effort to reduce the metropolis to ruins, thougn the citizens, happily, were ignorant of the fact. The success of the defensive methods was largely due to an instrument which recorded the strength of the invaders, their distance from the city, the height at which they were flying and other details which the authorities desire to keep secret. The headquarters of the London defence were at Axbridge, Middlesex. The Air Force centres in and around London were fully manned. Of the 50 machines employed only three had to make forced landings and no casualties resulted. On the second day of the manoeuvres the attackers penetrated the defences, but they were driven off in a few minutes with heavy losses. The effects of their bombing were minimised by the promptitude with which the ground forces scattered all possible targets. Camouflages were erected and decoys were placed in position. All vulnerable points pere protected and machines were rushed from hangars to repel attacks. Throughout the manoeuvres wireless codes played a most important part in assisting the defence forces.