DESIGN FOR MR RAIDS
By NOEL CARRINGTON
AIR raid precautions are all the rage in political circles ; and no wonder. With the break-up of collective security we have got to consider how vulnerable we are from the air. The general thesis used to be that our aero- planes and guns would be sufficient defence. If the autho- rities ever believed this, the fate of Guernica, of Madrid or of Shanghai, must have opened their eyes. It would take a lot of censorship to keep us from knowing. For we have it daily not only from special correspondents but in all the gruesome reality of the news-film. Even the children are inoculated weekly to the destruction of ancient civilisations and the litter of corpses in the streets.
It is clear now that no thought of retribution will deter a " thorough " commander from bombing his enemy's towns, and that all centres of population are held to be " strategic." There is a polite formula for every crime in a civilised age. What in such an emergency will be the right thing to do ? According to a respectable Govern- ment organ, it is very simple. " Nothing is easier," we are told, " than to go indoors, when the warning is given, shut the doors and windows and make both, with the flooring, as gas-proof as possible." Too simple, perhaps. Like telling us that if only we will quietly drown when a liner sinks we shall at least avoid being blown up by the boilers. Somehow I am not convinced.
Behind the fog of controversy over financial respon- sibility emerges the grim fact that the problem is too big for any government. Apart from securing as best it can the essential services, it will have to leave the ordinary man to fend for himself. Now many of us experienced in person a variety of bombardments and air raids in the last Great War. The instinct of any soldier when the music started was to go underground. A shell-hole was good enough at a pinch ; a trench was better ; a dug-out was better still. For fear of being buried alive none of us cared for dug-outs which were too elaborate, unless they were so deep as to be invulnerable. Soldiers on leave never thought the cellar business a good idea. They would rather lie down in a gutter, knowing their chance of being hit was very small. Certainly no one who has seen air raids on the films is going to sit quietly in the drawing-room reading Home Office instructions.
A high explosive in a narrow street will shatter a whole terrace of houses at one blow. No one, I say, will sit waiting resignedly for such a fate when his own family is concerned. There will be an exodus , from the towns. But where, one may well ask, will the people go, especially in winter ? And how will business be carried on when they have gone ? Evacuation will not work.
To build houses which would be impervious to bombs would mean such a revolution in our architecture that our cities would bear more resemblance to rabbit warrens than to any- thing we know. Yet protection •there must be unless we court the most appalling casualties to young and old alike, and the risk of disastrous panics. The gas-proofed room affords protection against one kind of bomb only, and against a type which many believe will not be extensively used. High explosive and thermite, meant for factory and dock, will do their deadly work unhindered.
I suggest that we are so far fortunately situated in that our building since the War has been dispersed rather than concentrated. Deplorable though this may have been on other grounds, it means that our suburbs offer a ridiculously wide target for the airman. The real danger-points are the great blocks of flats which have displaced the terraces of inner London, and the slums of the great industrial cities.
For anyone with a garden it is not impracticable to con- struct a dug-out which would be a bolt-hole at half a minute's notice. I would rather an open trench with a good gas-mask than the most scientifically proofed room in a house. As the wait might be long and the weather wet, a roof over the trench is desirable. Corrugated iron with a few inches of turf would be sufficient for anything but a direct hit. Where the soil is water-logged it would be necessary to build up with sandbags as we did in Flanders. To reinforce the sides with concrete, to line with boards and to heat and light with electricity are refinements which might be appreciated by anyone, and would be essential for the very young or very old. A door or curtain of gas-proofed fabric presents little difficulty. The experts claim that the official mask will give its wearer limited immunity, but there seems less unanimity amongst the scientists than we should like to see.
Should we leave the construction of our dug-outs till the emergency arises, or should they be prepared in advance ? It seems to me that there is much to be said for every home equipping itself before the need. Wars are not declared nowadays. They happen. A rebate on rates would prove a useful incentive, and give opportunity for expert inspection from time to time. Construction would not be expensive, less expensive than the average pool or rock-garden, and to some eyes rather less unsightly. Should the prospect of air raids recede, the dug-outs might become little hideaways for our grandchildren, to whose incredulous ears we would explain away their purpose.
The advantage, as I see it, of such protection is that it comes automatically into action, without the intervention of any public service which might all too easily be disorganised. It gives a large measure of security at a minimum of expense to the State. It avoids hasty evacuations. It leaves the armed forces free to concentrate on their essential work without distraction.
For flat-dwellers protection must obviously be provided below ground, and if the inhabitants are to be concentrated, the cover must be sufficient. Hospitals also present a difficult and expensive problem of their own, and so do schools. Street shelters and decontamination plants must clearly be provided at the public expense, but it is worth considering how far such bomb-proof shelters can be put to useful peace-time purposes, such as lavatories or underground garages. Industry must pro- vide shelter for factory workers if it hopes to keep their service in war-time. It is an insurance which manufacturers will have to pay for the ability to make their war-time profits.
The backbone of any nation is the ordinary man and woman at home. The last war showed to what a point nerves can be stretched by apprehension and lack of sleep. On the other hand, the story of Madrid shows how adaptable and tenacious mankind is in the face of every danger. It is only common sense, if one prepares for any danger at all, to prepare for the worst.
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