HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-06-24, Page 6TSP+,, SEAPORT
NEWS
TJWSDAY, JUNE 24, 194$
Blown Up By A Bomb
The "alert" is about three minutes
late tonight. During the past two
weeks the "alert"has usually meant
imminent danger,so now we ' are
quick in climbing into fire -fighting
gear. Jerry is overhead, and the fa-
miliar swis-ssh of high explosives
can be heard Above the vibrating
bangs of A.A. guns in the park close
to our school, They've started early.
Probably it's going to be hot tonight,
A girl in the control room rings 5
bell and yells .for No. 1 and 2app11-
ances. I am told where to report,
and my crew' are already on the ap-
pliance. We drive up the school ap-
proach ringing our bell and switch
our headlights on, but these are real-
ly unnecessary beeause the streets
are well lit by the glare from incen-
diary fires. Jeepers! There az'e plen-
ty of fires tonight, As we drive along
the High street a tram crushes an
incendiary bomb and showers of
sparks fly up from the wheels.
We report back to our station af-
ter an hour and a half on the job.
It's exciting tonight. We have taken
care of five fires, and the raid still
goes on. There was the incendiary
burning in the little shop just along
the High Street, Our No. 3 man ex-
ercised his right of entry and broke
open the front door to empty a
bucket of sand on the bomb. Then a
civilian led. us to his second floor
back flat where his dining room floor
was burning. We opened up a hyd-
rant, and after ten minutes the
smoke had turned to cool steam. Af-
ter that we went off to a greengroc-
er's shop, because a warden told us
the fire was getting hold. The glare
from the fire lit up the street and
there were Brussels sprouts and po-
tatoes on the sidewalk. That job
took us three-quarters of an hour.
There was enough boiling water from
the upstairs fire to cook all the vege-
tables in the shop below. Then on
the way back to our station we had
to break into a house in a terraced
row because flames were licking out
of the top windows. On this job there
were so many civilians anxious to
lend a hand that it took some time
to find the seat of the fire, but sand
and water did the job.
We jump up from our seats round
the fire when the bell rings again.
We are ordered to the local hospital
to make up the crews. This is a big-
ger job as there are already crews
working there. Jerry is still active as
we drive, to the hospital. We can
hear a bomb and then another swish
down and explode.
At the hospital I leave my crew at
the main gates and go off to find the
officer in charge of the fire. I am
told that he is up on the roof; so I
walk up three flights of stairs and
then up and outside iron ladder to
reach him. He is standing in the mid-
dle of the small bridge that connects
the two top floors of opposite wings
of the hospital. I recognize him by
his two brass epaulettes. His face is
black with wood ash. I report the
presence of nay crew, but we are not
wanted as the fire is well under con-
trol. Before I am dismissed I am told
to assist the officer to pay out a little
more hose so that the men on the
roof can get closer to the remaining
fire. The hose comes from a heavy
pump that is working from a water
dam on the ground about thirty feet
from where we are standing. It is
chargecj, with water, and three of us
have to pull hard to get the extra
foot or so that the roof amen need. I
can hear Jerry flying around stlil,
and from my high position I can see
a number of fires burning. It certain-
ly is a stinker tonight, but the glow
from the fires is getting dull.
Then without any warning, with-
out any whistle or swish, a high ex-
plosive bomb drops on the ground
underneath our bridge. I am hurled
upwards through the air at a terrify-
ing speed. At the top of my flight I
seem to be stationary for a second.
I am conscious of a brilliant light
from the exploding bomb, and in
this instant I see the bridge breaking
up underneath me. Kirby, the officer
in charge, is flying through the air,
and the light is playing on his polish-
ed
olished brass epaulettes. There is the roar
of the explosion and the rumble of
falling bricks and masonry. Then it
is dark.
I begin to turn over and over as I
fall. I know that I. have a long way
to drop, and I imagine that I shall be
killed when I reach the ground. I
let my body go limp because I think
that by doing this I will possibly
avoid violet fractures. I wonder how
much it is going to hurt. There is
still a loud rumbling of falling deb-
ris and I feel my forehead become
inoist against the wind as something -
grazes the skin. It seems that I have
been falling a week. I begin to feel
annoyed—annoyed at the thought of
dying before the war is finished,
A pattern of loosely connected
thought impinges on my conscious-
ness. All my life I have watched civ-
ilization in revolt: first creeping,
then a stampede. It would have been
so interesting, so exciting, , , To be
able to heat down the forces that are.
trying to stop us, , .'The future of
mankind, , . A new and better
world order. , . not by race domin-
ation, I might have seen the begin-
ning of a world community. . . In
our time, or in our children's time.
In a. small way I had hoped to be
,lair of, the great change,, but here I
ant turning crazily over arid over
and falling towards my doom. 2 ant
annoyed. Then I console myself, that
at least I have lived to see the turn-
ing point in civilization. That in it-
self is something, Then I wonder
again how hard theground is going
to be. -
I am conscious of the fact that I
have stopped falling. There is a pain
in my left aria, but I just can't think
that I am alive. A piece of debris, a
doorframe -or something, lands ac-
ross my chest, but its full force is
taken by the debris that is on either
side of me, I welcome the twinge in
my chest. I must still be alive. I
attempt to raise the debris, but my
left arm will not respond to the im-
pulse. My right arm is active, and I
manage to get up and walk towards
a group of dim lights that are ap-
proaching in front of me.
As I walk I hear a whimper and I
look down on the ground. In the half
light I see the starched cuff of a
nurse poking out of the rubble. The
arm protrudes from the elbow and.
'the fingers move. I feel a bit sick in-
side. I say something about getting
the nurse out and I hope I sound
confident. I scrape away at the
bricks and the stench of mortar
dust hangs in the air. Two men slide
up behind me and fall in to the job
of excavating. I must have passed
out then.
I am being half carried along a
corridor between a Home Guard and
an orderly. I am delivered to two
nurses who grin when they see ane..
They set about taking my clothes
off and say that I look like a sweep.
They are magnificent. They get my
heavy clothes off without caus-
ing much pain to my arm. I notice
that my shoulder joint is somewhere
between its normal position and my
elbow. I am put into a bed to wait
for a doctor. The nurses make nae
feel that it's good to be alive, and
they do not worry about two heavy
bombs that fall close enough to send
glass tinkling down outside. A doc-
tor comes and gently lifts my arm
back into its shoulder joint. It feels
like heaven now. Casualties are com-
ing into the ward, and the cries of
the wounded make me feel low. A
sister dies before the doctors can do
anything for her.
Kirby comes in from the operating
theater early in the morning with
seventeen stitches across his head. I
hear that he was buried in the bot-
tom of the bomb crater for three
hours, but while he was ander the
debris he managed somehow to tell
an orderly to get a message to Head-
quarters saying that the breakdown
lorry and a crew were required to
dig hint and others out. The lorry
arrived, and after the "All Clear"
sounded they put on their flood
lights and got the victims out. Kirby
has got plenty of gilts.
A pal comes in to see ale. Ile has
been searching for are for hours. I
can see he is glad to find me in bed
alive. I go off to sleep.
Whitewash Receipes
for Farm Buildings
Here are two standard recipes for
making whitewash for farm build-
ings: (1) Into a large clean tub put
one bushel of lump lime, and slake it
with boiling water, covering it during
the process to keep in the steam.
Strain the liquid through a line sieve,
then add 3 lb. of commercial sulphate
of zinc, 1 lb. of alum, and two lb. of
common salt, the alum and the salt
having previously been dissolved in
hot water.
(2) Slake one-half bushel of lump
lime with boiling water in a barrel;
Strain and add one-quarter peck of
salt dissolved in warm water, 31/4' lb.
of flour made into a thin paste with
boiling water, and one-quarter ib. of
glue dissolved in warm water, It is
recommended that this whitewash be
applied bot.
Where a disinfectant whitewash is
desired, a recipe recommended by the
Dominion Experimental Station at
Scott, Sask., is as follows: Dissolve
50 lb. of lime in:eight eight gallons of boil-
ing water; add six gallons of hot
water which has ten pounds of alum
and one pound of salt dissolved in it.
Add a can of lye to every 25 gallons
of the mixture. Add a pound of ce-
ment to every three gallons gradual-
ly, and stir thoroughly. A quart of
creosol disinfectant may be used in-
stead of the lye, but lye is preferred
when the colour is to be kept white.'
Other receipes for whitewash and
cold water paint may be found in a
circular on Whitewash, obtainable on
request from the Dominion Depart-
ment of Agriculture, Ottawa.
�''' '
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kekliataWAv.I.ORNS,=
THE LULL BEFORE THE STORMING: BRITAIN'S STH ARMY CONSOLIDATES ITS. GAINS
Piciure taken_during. the "Between battles" period when the 3th Army was consolidating its gains and prepar-
ing for the push into Tripolitania. A vast amount of intricate organisation was necessary to bring up supplies,
repair and re-establish damaged bases, harbours, roads, railways, .etc., before General Montgomery's drive could
be' continued. Picture shows: General Montgomery, Commander of the Eighth Army, inspecting sea defense guns.
BRITISH -LIGHT BOMBERS STRIKING AT ENEMY BASES
Picture shows: R.A.F. fitters, mechanics and armourers preparing a "Bisley" light bomber in North Africa for
a raid on one of the Axis supply -bases. U.S., French and Britishaircraft are co-operating.
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The Seaforth.News'..
SEAFORTH, ONTARIO:,