A.R.P. IN EGYPT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 3

A.R.P. IN EGYPT

REALISM IN NEW ZEALAND CAMP OBSERVANCE OF BLACK-OUT RULES. BRILLIANT SCENE FADES OUT. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) MAY 14. "Lio down, you!" I had been caught napping, and the yell in my ear made me jump as if a ghost had loomed out of the darkness ahead of me. I dropped like a stone on io the sand of the parade ground, which was already dotted with outstretched figures, facing upwards to the starry sky. However much it looked like a game, the sight of these prostrate men was something far more relevant to pre-sent-day affairs. The air raid warning had sounded again, and when ihe hooters blare there is only one sure way of avoiding your sergeant-major's wrath. In his own blunt words: "Duck—and duck quick!” In daylight and darkness, now in the middle of a meal and now during a parade, the alarm put us to the test at unexpected moments. We have just shared with the whole of Egypt, civilian and military population alike, the experience of a week ol mock air raid and black-out exercises. In the New Zealand camp realism was achieved by strict observance of black-out rules and anti-gas precautions. Active defence sections, special piquets and decontamination squads were trained in their duties. Umpires went their rounds to note and correct faults and to mark out pretended gascontaminated area. Friendly aircraft played the role of enemy raiders to make the mock, air attacks-still more effective.

The striving after realism reached its height on the last night of exercises. when the shattering detonation of “bombs,” exploded throughout the camp, shook -us out of our beds. The rattle of gas alarms followed, and we took refuge in our respirators. Because “gas attacks" might come at any time, we carried this part of our equipment with us wherever we went, even if it was only to walk a few yards from the tents.

Each tent was required to attend to its own blacking-out after dark, while vehicles travelled with lights shielded by blue-painted glass. Chinks of light through the walls of wooden buildings were carefully obscured before the exercises began, and mechanicallyminded members of my own unit devised switches which threw rooms lit by electricity into comparative darkness when outside doors were opened. The city of Cairo was a study in soft moonlight, dark shadows and the blue glow of motor headlamps when I visited it one night during the exercises. The atmosphere of the lively city had changed completely. Gone were the brilliant advertising signs, the bright theatre foyers, the glittering shop windows. The facades of tall buildings were gaunt and black, doorways were darkened, and street lamps were extinguished except at busy corners, where they shed only a glimmer of blue. Trams and buses went by in the faintest blur of light. My first impression was of a city suddenly awakened in the hour before dawn—so suddenly that the electric power authorities had had no time to reach for the street-lamp switches. It was the cacophony of traffic noises more than anything else which proved that the city still lived. Until I grew accustomed to the weird darkness I found myself bumping into shadows that weren’t shadows at all. but blacked-out pedestrians. Some of them carried flashlights for their own protection, and I found safety behind the glow of a cigarette. Winking traffic signals, however, made good guiding stars, for they were easily the most conspicuous lights in the city.

I passed sidewalk cafes where people sat in the darkness and dined and chatted as if nothing had happened. I thought the indoor bars and cafes must be closed, but when a door swung quickly open and shut again I had a glimpse of a bright room full of busy tables. I walked through streets lined with business houses and native dwellings alike, and no suspicion of bright light was to be seen. Steel-helmeted policemen patrolled the footpaths to ensure that the restrictions were being observed. There was something else I saw — something which, in Cairo, seemed inevitable. Wherever there is a chance of commercialising anything under the sumn. the city’s “street salesmen” will take that chance. The black-out was no exception, and it saw the sidewalk vendor change his usual variety of wares into a tray full of cheap electric torches, or invest in a pot of blue paint with which to come to the aid —at a price—of motorists whose lights were not sufficiently dimmed.

The Air Raid Precautions authorities pronounced the black-out exercises a success, for the people of Cairo and of every other city and town in Egypt were quick to realise their responsibilities. From a high-flying 'plane only the silver ribbon of the Nile was visible in the Cairo area. Air raid warnings were obeyed more and more promptly and smoothly. In the city they were the signal to take cover, and people streamed into shelters and other places of safety, leaving the footpaths deserted and traffic at a standstill.

Practice though it. was. the week's exercise was impressive in its realism and thoroughness. The “passive” defence measures of which I have told were, of course, only one side of the black-out picture. Behind the scenes, machinery which would answer the challenge of real enemj' raiders was ready to spring to life almost, at the touch of a button.