Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-12-28

bombing raids and conditions in Eng.
land has been received BY Mrs. @. ii
Blannin Of Butte from her 19-year-olc
niece, Miss vi Halfway, in Plymouth
England The letter was written
"A lot has happened. but it's an
become so much a part Of ones everv-
day life that one Just takes II all as
matter OF course" writes the young
girl, who Is doing her bit to aid her
country as a telephone operator warn
ing people Of fires during air raids.
you viii have heard about Door
London getting such an awful time.
but I expect you'd like to hear now
we're faring down here. For instance,
last Saturday our first alert In the
evening came at about 7:45. Then
q. m. Doesn't give you much time for
sleep but it's surprising with how
little you can manage.
incidentally, got really frightened
during the $3.50 a. m. one. You see at
first we thought that the telephone
operators needn't report to their sta
lions till after the all clear, but nov
we find that as fires simply must be
dealt with Immediately, whether the
enemy are still overhead or not. we
all arrive during the raid.
well, this is all right for the other
girls, as none Of them live more than I
q two or three-minute walk from the
station, but it takes me 70 minutes
running most Of the way I often get /
a lift, but Saturday there wasn't
soul IN sight. set off as soon as the
alert sounded and had got about half
way there when the A. A. (anti-air-
;raft) guns opened fire. I happened to
COX up at the sky and to my horror
aw that the shells were bursting right
overhead.
Really Frightened
Il really was frightened, not only
4 shrapnel, but In case Jerry should
eleaSe his bombs as he so often does
o get away quickly. I flattened my
elf against the wall and waited, lis
ening to the ping Of the shrapnel ,
nd trying to shrink under my tin /
at. ,
''Then I ran faster than I'VE ever !
an before, heaving a sigh of relief
hen arrived all In one piece. I've :
cen out in heavy gunfire before and :
OF minded as there were other A. r. P. :
eople around, but the fact that I
'uld neither see nor hear anyone just ,
Ot me down" I
The girl described another raid v
hich occurred while she was on her a
ay home in the car of one of the >
villain volunteers.
mother Raid
"Just before we reached the bottom II
our road, we noticed q lot of search Il
hts. Looks like another raid I said, re
Id we certainly got It, Before the q
EN- could sound the alert, down came
e bombs. We drew the car to the IN
lie of the road and just sat there ~
tn bombs screaming down and ex- 10
oding all around us. To my utter ar
lazement, we were absolutely o. K. oV
len at last the fearful noise sub to
led. oy
we drove on home before return n,
J to duty to make sure the parents he
re all right and as we turned into
r road In the moonlight could see tir
smother of dust rising In the air "a
out so or so yards up the road from ge
: house. Everyone was safe but bll
lily shaken, as they had had no
lie to get to the shelter Eve have
'eal one now in our neighbours gar wa
y as the alert hadn't sounded till -
er the bombs dropped.
Ors Blown Down
The front and back doors of the
age had been blown open by the
st and all the glass blown out of
windows. The windows of the
Use have anti-splinter paper on
m, so were protected bit, but the
servatory roof was blown out.
cks have appeared In all the cell
5, but they didn't come down, thank
dneSs. A piece Of glass from the
servatory roof Is completely en-
ded In the steps leading into the
den, as it was blown out with such
Re. Ten bombs had been dropped,
within about 200 yards with us in
ut the middle so, as you can mag
it wasn't very pleasant. The
day we had an army Of work
/ replacing broken windows and
rs, so that quite soon it looked al
t normal again.
;ix days later we had bombs near
again At the bottom of our back
len there is a field and in the
die of this field there is a per-
" harmless factory which makes
S for babies. Well, originally it
a white building, but when the
5 started, people living near asked
could be camouflaged as it was
good landmark. The owner oblig-