Air Terror Startles England from Dreams of Peace

Radio Record, 19 August 1938, Page 6

Air Terror Startles England from Dreams of Peace

HIS article, written by Trevor Lane, describes the swift creation in England of a volunteer air raid patrol, one million strong. Mr. Lane was a member of the Paddington unit of the A.R.P. during his stay in London.

ITLER marches on Vienna! It was with | that memorable Fri- ~ day afternoon announcement, leaping at London from the front pages of every newspaper, that the Rritish Government’s policy

toward the civilian population changed. Until then we had known that there were: factories manufacturing gas masks, that Paris had prepared its underground for the reception of the people in case of raids, that German houses were equipped with special air raid chambers. But in England-‘"‘this England that never did and never shall lie at the foot of a proud conqueror’’-these precautions seemed rather quaint and unnecessary. In less than a day the Government’s policy of "tell ’em nothing’ changed with such vigour that the man in the street found himself peering anxiously skyward for enemy planes that might be already on the way ! "Britain Must Be Prepared-YOU Must Be Prepared.’ So said the posters in every Underground. The possibility of air raids became the talk at every tea table. "The newspapers, which had been inclined to tone down the reports of the horrible massacres in Barcelona and Shanghai. now began to print them in all their ghastly detail. What was happening in Spain and China could happen in

London and Bournemouth. Within a few days the A.R.P.-Air Raid Precautions -had come into being. A hundred. thousand — recruits — were wanted in London, a million in England. I joined the A.R.P. in Paddington and

found myself in a company several thousand sirois -and more than half of them were women. Paddington was proud to be the first district in. London to organise an experimental "black. out.’"" Every volunteer was on the job that. night-I'll never forget the eerie aspect of Praed Street; dirty, well-lighted, noisy Praed Street as the sirens sounded their mournful "lights out.’" Coloured signs faded, lights disappeared from windows, cars switched off their headlights. .And with the darkness a strange silence fell, too. Several houses in Westbourne Grove had been marked off as ‘victims.’ -In them were people supposedly suffering from gas, old women petrified by the noise of falling bombs, children caught under . debris. The whole thing was gruesome, but marvellously organised. Volunteers, looking rather ridiculous in their gas masks, dashed up and down stairs, bringing out victims and placing them in waiting ambulances. Houses had to be "decontaminated" -freed of poisonous’ gases-stretchers had to be rigged up, broken windows patched. . In the streets, searchlights streaked the sky, picking up the "‘enemy’’ planes, anti-aircraft guns (Continued on page 25.) A |

Air Terror. Startles England SD (Continued from page 6.)

rat-tatted into the night. Newsboys appeared with postérs, ‘War Declared!’ And then came the long, low wail of the "All clear’ siren. It was almost too realistic. Within a week or two England had become thoroughly roused to the menace of air raids. I was staying with some friends at their country house in Sussex. At afternoon tea one day I was told to help myself to a cigarette. The box was unopened and I began to tear off the cellophane wrapping. "Oh, don’t tear it,’ said my hostess. "I’m saving all those wrappings." "Whatever for?’ I asked. "In ease of air raids,’ she said. "Cellophane glued over the windows will prevent splinters from fying about." That is typical of the whole of the English people to-day. Even the veriest yokel, buried in the tiniest village, is being given his air raid instructions, shown how to don a gas mask. In the West End of London the big stores are devoting whole floors to displays of modern bombs and methods for keeping out of their way. I saw two old ladies of 70 or more putting on gas masks and walking into chambers filled with poisonous gases. I saw school children studying charts showing the speed of bombing planes and the flying distances from London of the Continental capitals. I saw a display of photographs showing the damage done to London during air raids:in the last war-a hoie knocked in the National Gallery, a veranda dislodged from a theatre in the Aldwych, some windows smashed in a hotel in Soho. And next to these were pictures of the results of modern ai" raids-skyscraper tenements ripped anid shattered in Valencia, trams and: cars buried under tons of debris in Shang: hai, women and children in horrible puddied heaps in the streets of Barceona. . It was impossible to compare the raids of 1916-17 with to-day’s. Before I left London, forms had been sent to every householder in Padding-

ton asking how many gas masks were required for the house, and instructions were being issued. The Government had completed its scheme for the digging of trenches in Llyde Park, trenches big enough to accommodate 200,000 of London’s West End population. At a reception in London in May, I had the privilege of talking to Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the new Colonial Secretary. I asked him whether this swift preparation meant that we were in immediate danger. "Not at all," he said, "but the English character is such that the average Englishman almost needs a bomb under him before he can be persuaded into action of this kind. And this air-raid publicity and activity of the past few weeks is the bomb, as it were. The country must take these precautions seriously."