BLACKOUT FUTILE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1941, Page 6

BLACKOUT FUTILE

AS DEFENCE AGAINST AIR ATTACK AN EXPERT’S CONCLUSIONS. ■ CASE FOR FLOOD LIGHTING. My reasons for wishing to discontinue the black-out can be briefly summarised as follows, states Noel Pemberton-Billing in "Defence Against the Night Bomber." It is impossible to hide our coastline. The black-out accentuates rivers and other natural landmarks. The target effect of fires or fifthcolumn signal lights is enormously increased. If required, its effect can be completely cancelled out by the dropping of flares. It adds greatly to the terrorising effect of the raids. It hampers terribly the work of the Air Raid Precautions and rescue squads. It adds to the difficulty of the firefighters and makes their work unnecessarily dangerous. It tends to destroy social life. Thousands of man-hours are wasted every night in the process of “black-ing-out.” Electric power is wasted and eyes strained, duo to day and night blackouts in many factories. Hinders the use of fighters at night because flying-fields have to be illuminated.

Slows down railways and hinders loading. Slows down road traffic and wears out nerves of transport drivers. Accentuates position of railway lines and locomotives as seen from the air. Causes many thousands of road deaths and injuries. Even if none of these objections existed, it.would still be a waste of time, as it has been proved that it does not hinder the enemy, whereas its effect in hindering ourselves has been enormous. Is there an alternative to the blackout? In discussing any scheme we must bear in mind that it is not only desirable to provide an alleviation of the many discomforts and dangers of the black-out. but also to see if it is possible to attain the defensive advantages of hiding military objectives and confusing the enemy, that the blackout so miserably fails to do. It is to the achievement of both these ends that I have directed myself in developing a system of light camouflage.

LIGHT CAMOUFLAGE.

Nobody who has ever driven into the headlights of a stationary car, even at a mile distance, can have failed to appreciate how completely everything behind those lights is blacked -out. Imagine how this condition •of affairs would be aggregated if the lights were not only flashing but oscillating. It is the amplification of this system applied to the whole country that I would introduce, and have consistently advocated, as the only scientific way by which it is possible to prevent, the enemy bomber from discriminating successfully between open country and built-up areas. The system of light camouflage relies in the main on the use of a very great number of relatively small searchlights with a very short-focus wide-angle beam pointing upwards. They need not, in fact, be very much larger or more powerful than normal motor-car headlights. If it should be considered necessary to employ existing material for such a purpose, then I see no reason why these motor-car headlights should not actually be used. The system provides for the stationing of these lights pointing upwards over the whole of the country, so that England presents to the enemy raider nothing but a confused and frightening mass of lights, behind which nothing can be seen. At first sight, such a suggestion might appear staggering, or even impossible, but let us investigate in more detail what it amounts to.

Taking the area of England to be approximately 50,000 square miles, we would require a minimum of one wide-angle beam searchlight in the centre of each quarter of a sciuare mile. Thus. 200,000 such lights will be required, which is not at all a serious number. A few firms, working on a purely peace-time basis, produce literally” millions of motor-car headlights every year. There are in this country at present hundreds of thousands of cars whose owners are permitted by law to use only one of their headlights. If but a proportion of them volunteered to give their other headlight—not a great sacrifice in view of the consequences of the black-out to every one of them—then by that method” alone a sufficient number could be gained. It is a known fact, and any pilot who has been on active service will confirm my argument, that to look down into the beam of a large and brilliant light is possibly* the most confusing thing that can be experienced. to bo expected to fly continuously over an immense expanse of flashing lights is a far more worrying task.

The two most important essentials in connection with the development of this system are, first, the use of the thermostaticalW controlled lamp that flashes intermittently, and the second is to mount the lamp on a small eccentrically operated gimbal similar to those • employed on household fans, which provides the necessary optical confusion.

A further amplification of this idea that would greatly add to the confusion of the enemy, and oven more completely upset all his attempts at navigation, is the possibility that it suggests of anchoring small craft or buoys on the rivers and less turbulent waters around our coast, thus making it more difficult to distinguish the coastline and altering the shape of England from that which appears on the enemy’s maps. If the system of moving shore lights were adopted this would effectively prevent the enemy airmen from discriminating between the sea-borne lights and those on land. It may prove impossible to disguise the presence of broken water, but I believe the experiment at least to be worthy of a trial. There will be many who will talk of the difficulties in the initial installation and subsequent continual maintenance of so vast and comprehensive a system, but compare it for one moment with the cost and danger of the black-out. And what are these great difficulties? The cost might be mentioned, but that is certainly not serious, if the idea has any value at all. I make bold to suggest that the cost of 12 hours’ hostilities, based on our present war Budget, would be suffici-

ent to cover all the costs and drive the contractor far into the realms of the excess profit tax. The watching and maintenance of these lights would provide a worthwhile and intelligent occupation for the very numerous members of the Home Guard. This would almost completely eliminate the maintenance costs of the scheme, with the exception of the current consumed and the burnt-out bulbs. This consumption of power would be but a fraction of that used in lighting the streets of our cities in peace time.

REFLECTION OF FLARES.

i The use of flares by Royal Air Force raiders has proved successful with the exception, which our pilots have more than once reported .that when there is even the slightest low-lying mist oi' cloud the reflection of the flares on this mist creates a halation which makes it almost impossible to locate the targets. It is just such a halation as this that I wish to lay permanently over the whole country. The greatest advantage of the flare is that the bomber can hide behind this general illumination, which blinds the gunners and pales the searchlights, leaving the bomber secure in the darkness behind. Why not reverse this important advantage and let the whole country hide behind the general illumination of its own lighting system? The effect of such a system in lighting the country behind the lamps would be comparable with that of a person standing some distance behind the headlights of a car. Although quite invisible to anyone ahead, he would be conscious of a condition of twilight. Given a sufficient number of lamps, this twilight over the whole country would enable us to go about at night not only with a new safety from aerial attack, but with an almost equally important safety from all the surface dangers of the black-out. The work of rescue squads, and other Air Raid Precautions workers, transport both by road and rail, and the convenience and social life of the ordinary Englishman—all would benefit equallj r from the return “out of darkness into twilight.” But its advantages go much further than this, for it also provides aid for our active offence against the enemy raiders. It puts the dark enemy bomber against a bright, luminous background, which should ensure successful attack by our fighters operating above it, and thus enable them to operate under daylight' conditions. It is, of course, one of the essential features of the scheme that it does not illuminate the cities as distinct from the countryside, but effectively prevents them from being distinguished, which their present nightly bombing makes it obvious that the black-out does not.

On the outbreak of the last Great War the late Lord Grey stood at his window and said to a friend: “The lights are going out over Europe.” A figurative truth of those days has become/ a very literal and unpleasant truth in this war. The whole country has been plunged into a blackness that damps our spirits even more effectively than it darkens our streets. I look forward to the day when, gazing from my window, I can say: “The lights are up over England!”