Page 680 - Reading Mercury

recognised as an expert in his craft. He retired three years ago. A member of the
Wokingham Club, Mr. Maris was, for many years, a keen bowls player. His death
resulted from a sudden collapse. The funeral takes place today (Saturday) at Reading
Cemetery.

th
Fri 19 July
RAID WARNINGS
SOME ANSWERS TO “WHYS” & “WHY NOTS”
SMALL RISK FROM LONE RAIDERS
(PASSED BY CENSOR)
A lot of unnecessary worry and false rumour is due to ignorance about the tactics
employed to deal with enemy raiders. “Why don’t they sound the sirens”? “Why
aren’t the A.A. guns firing”? “Why aren’t our fighters in action”? are the sort of
questions asked. And the answers given by “know-alls” often lead to ridiculous
stories.
It must be remembered that recent raids have only been of a general reconnaissance
nature, designed to enable the enemy pilots to find their way about the countryside, to
disturb Factory work, to cause loss of sleep and thereby increase personal irritation. If
you give way in this fashion you are only helping the enemy to achieve his object.
Now the sounding of sirens is not a fixed system. Each raid has to be judged on its
“merits” and the decision made as to whether or not it is worthwhile to sound the
sirens to deal with a lone raider or two which only be passing overhead on its way to
an objective. The Fighter Command has to decide this problem each time. The man in
charge is a reasonable man doing a reasonable job of work, and the public must him to
do his work properly. He is in the best position to assess the character of the raid and
knows far more than the “critic-in-the-street”.
Remember, too, that 100 per cent safety in a raid is not possible. Turn these facts
over in your mind for a moment. The enemy is about half-an-hour’s flight away from
the south-west. If each time one plane comes over the sirens are sounded, industry is
bound to be disorganised. If the raid lasts an hour and a half and there are 5,000
workers in a factory, 7,500 hours of work will be lost—and that is a serious matter,
particularly with munition and aircraft factories. Multiply that loss of time in relation
to all the factories in the region affected by the raid.
At the moment the Nazis have not bombed open towns in a serious fashion. Fear of
retaliation makes him pause. He knows that as long as the R.A.F. bomber strength is
maintained, we will answer him bomb for bomb. Allow that strength to go below the
level when big retaliation is possible, and the enemy will undoubtedly bomb towns
mercilessly.
So your ultimate safety depends on the bomber strength. So factories must work
tirelessly. They cannot if work is interrupted by siren-sounding and ordinary industry
(with which aircraft production is linked) hampered.
In war risks have got to be accepted. Complete safety would immobilise the country
and we should lose the war. Everyone is in the “front line” and you must accept
reasonable risks. But that risk from these lone raiders is so small that you can ignore
it. You stand more chance of being killed on the road than you do by a bomb at the
moment.
Now about the A.A. guns and the fighters. It is no good firing the guns until the
enemy plane is located. And it is not easy to find a lone raider at night in clouds.
Fighters, too, have a difficult, a tremendous difficult task in locating the enemy if they
are in small numbers. The enemy is probably doing at least 200 m.p.h. and the fighter

678