DAILY RAIDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1940, Page 5

DAILY RAIDS

TAKEN BY LONDONERS IN THEIR STRIDE PEOPLE SETTLE DOWN TO NEW ROUTINE. NO RESERVATION OF SEATS IN SHELTERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, September 10. Londoners have taken the Luftwaffe’s daily raids in their stride. In one week the entire life of the city has changed—regulated by the timetabled visitations—and the people have settled down to withstanding the greatest air siege in history. The first daily warning can be expected at midday, when the Germans make a ' regular attempt to break through with bombers in mass formation. The Londoners shrug their shoulders and estimate that the sheltersitting will last half an hour to an hour. The next raid usually arrives at approximately 5 p.m. and lasts about the same period, while the German pilots endeavour to drop bombs which will cause fires and guide them throughout the night. ■ Then, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., tljfi nightly sessions begin. Everywhere in the vast, sprawling city millions go to the shelters prepared to remain there till 6 a.m. Suburban residents have converted their shelters into bedrooms, and with their children and even, their pets they bed down cheerfully for the night. Those lacking private shelters hurry to public shelters where they settle down in small, brave-hearted communities, intimately drawn together by the overshadowing peril. Those living in hotels go to the basements and ground floors, prepared for a fitful vigil. THE NEW NIGHT LIFE. “Night life” has been abandoned temporarily. The theatres are closed, but the queues remain. Where once Londoners sat patiently waiting for the show to begin, amused by itinerant entertainers, they now wait as patiently for the shelters to open with the first note of the sirens, since the wardens will not allow seats to be reserved. Working hours have been adjusted to suit the raids. The homeward trend begins two hours earlier; the staffs of offices have been advised to set off at about 4 p.m., before the first raid so that they have settled down in- their homes by dusk. Queues for trains and buses wait patiently and more tolerantly than in peacetime. Many' Londoners are having a cold midday meal instead of a hot one since the gas pressure of many of the restaurants is reduced. Some of the water services are also reduced and the Metropolitan Water Board has appealed to the people to use less water for bathing and washing up. As raids continue night after night one thing emerges: the people, who have been schooled to expect the toll of night-bombing, are resigned to get it over as though it were a distasteful necessity in order to free Europe of a scourge. HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE IN SCHOOL BUILDING HIT BY BOMB. LONDON, September 10. Many bodies so far have been recovered from a school in East London which received a direct hit by a bomb yesterday. Some persons were extricated from the mass of twisted girdvers and debris still alive, but they died en route to hospital. Another message states that the school was occupied temporarily by people whose homes had been destroyed.