NIGHTMARE BARRAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1943, Page 3

NIGHTMARE BARRAGE

MET BY THE GERMANS OVER LONDON NEW WEAPONS & METHODS. USED FOR THE FIRST TIME. LONDON, January 18. : A German who was aboard . one of the raiders over Lon- • don on Sunday night has re- ; vealed in a broadcast that the . raiders met with a “wire barrage.” He said that the flak was tremendous, but the , night-fighters were the worst problem. The “Daily Mail” says that the nightmare barrage which routed the Luftwaffe over London on Sunday was the result of months of planning by some of Britain’s best scientific brains, and it contained some closelyguarded military secrets. New weapons were used for the first time and new methods were tried out which foxed the raiders and forced many of them to turn off at the outskirts of the city. The great changes followed largescale experiments. When puzzled Londoners recently watched searchlights chasing bombers while the guns were silent they were unwittingly spectators of important tests. When the Luftwaffe appeared, there were spectacular happenings overhead. Shells burst in close pattern round the raiders, lighting the sky with a red glow. London is now one of the world’s most strongly defended cities, and the defences are improving all the time. Almost all the still-secret guns are manned by Home Guards, who are on duty one night in eight.

The master-mind behind the barrage was a high army officer in a controlroom deep below central London. This officer controlled all the guns as a conductor directs an orchestra; he spoke into a microphone, and his orders were echoed in the gun-sites from loudspeakers. Radio location, which has made great strides since the blitz, enabled the A.T.S. to plot a course in the con-trol-room on a map telling the G.O.C. exactly what the guns had to contend with. The “Daily Telegraph” says that anti-aircraft shells which did not explode till hitting the ground, and also shell-splinters, killed 23 and injured 60 persons on Sunday night. People 30 miles from London felt the ground tremble when the barrage was at its height. The Germans today raided a town on the south-east coast of England, resulting in no casualties but heavy damage.