MOCK RAID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1942, Page 2

MOCK RAID

MASTERTON EMERGENCY TRIAL TEST OF E.P.S. ORGANISATION. REHEARSAL ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON. Masterton is to be subjected to its first mock air raid on Saturday afternoon, when a daylight E.P.S. trial will be held. The occasion will be the first full-scale test to be held locally. The alarm is to be sounded at 1.15 p.m., following the falling of a large bomb on the.Waipoua River Bridge. As a result the bridge will be rendered unserviceable, the water and gas mains smashed and electric power lines brought clown. Five minutes later another bomb, falling at the junction of Queen Street and Lincoln Road, will wreck the Post Office and telephone exchange and the water, gas, and electric power services will be dislocated. Many casualties will require to be dealt with in this area,, besides fires at the Post Office, Academy •buildings and Ninnes’s. Houses in all seven borough zones will be set on fire by incendiary bombs and at 1.30 p.m. the tank installation at Renall Street will be fired by saboteurs who will be seized by petrol guards. _ Upon the warning signal being given by the chairman of the E.P.S. organisation, the executive committee will meet at the arranged assembly point and committees of all units will assemble at their respective points. Units will report to their stations in accordance with instructions given by the respective controllers. The communications section will be called upon to convey the warning signal to the alarm point and to the War Room, Wellington. The Works section will shut down damaged utilities and make temporary repairs, if these are practicable. Meals for workers engaged in restoration work will be arranged by the Supply section. The Fire section will convey the warning signal when received to appropriate points. Other action involves the establishment of an auxiliary telephone service by.the Communications section, the selection of an alternative assembly point and the organisation of runners by cycle. The Fire Brigade will extinguish fires and the medical section attend to casualties. In the case of damaged premises the Health section will establish earth closets. Police will close the streets affected by the raid and divert traffic and establish pickets where these are necessary. The organisation of food supplies for persons billeted will be carried out by the Supply section, which will also take action to check panic buying and will arrange meals for E.P.S. personnel. Arrangements for dealing with homes disrupted by the raid and for billeting will be undertaken by the Accommodation section. The Transport unit will call up vehicles for immediate duty and issue petrol coupons. Suffi-. cient vehicles will be assembled in anticipation of controllers’ requirements, and reserve transport will be in readiness. Appropriate steps to counter, in conjunction with the Supply Committee, any tendency by the public to panic buying will be taken by the , Publicity Committee, which will also . record casualty information at , the casualty clearing stations and issue bulletins to check exaggerated reports of damage and casualties and furnish reports to the Press and to the National Service Department, in the latter case, through the Executive Committee. The Records and Finance Committee will obtain from every controller a roll of all personnel and particulars of duty hours.

Wardens will assemble at district wardens’ posts to receive instructions and the E.P.S. Fire Units will . deal with fires. All casualties, after receiving treatment, will be evacuated by the Medical section, to the casualty clearing stations and thence to hospital, if necessary. Inspections of any damage to drainage will be carried out by the Health Unit, which will' arrange temporary facilities and direct householders if the water supply is contaminated.