AIR RAID SHELTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1940, Page 5

AIR RAID SHELTERS

EFFICACY DEMONSTRATED IN BRITAIN PEOPLE ESCAPE INJURY. FROM BOMB EXPLOSIONS NEAR AT HAND. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 23. One of the most interesting features of the preliminary German raiding of Britain in the past week has been the test applied to the air-raid precautions organised by the Government. As regards the personnel, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security, Mr Mabane, paid a well-de-served tribute on the radio to the manner in which the members of the A.R.P. services who have already been in action have discharged their duties. No less encouraging is the first experience under bombardment of the steel shelters which were distributed free by the Government to householders in the danger areas belonging to the lower-income groups. Reports from technical experts of the Ministry of Home Security furnish striking testimony to the protective qualities of the “Anderson” shelters. Though many large bombs fell in close proximity to a number of these shelters none of the occupants received any harm.

In one south-eastern town a heavy bomb, probably of 5001 b, fell in the back gardens of a group of small houses, most of which had shelters in their gardens. One of these shelters was only 30 feet from the crater and contained a family of four persons, including two children. All were unharmed. The house from which the occupants of the shelter had come was badly damaged by bomb splinters.

In a south coast town the debric of a house fell on a shelter of this type, but the occupants were unharmed. Another incident provided encouraging testimony of the value of public shelters provided by the authorities in great numbers. A large bomb fell close to one of these public shelters, the occupants of which were quite unharmed.