The Wilmington morning star., 1942-05-08
50 WOMEN NEEDED
BY FILTER CENTER
More Volunteers Request
ed By Information Cen
ter Authorities Here


mation-filter center, so more are
needed to completely man the sta
tion during the hours from 9
o'clock at night to midnight, it
was announced Thursday. Il
The Wilmington information-
filter center has $50 women on the
job but needs so additional volun-
teers from 8 pm. to midnight to
complete the staff.
The center is operating well dur
ing the daytime hours but the night
shifts are undermined, according
to 1t. R. c. Webb, acting regional
commander. 1--WE need women
three nights week from 8 to II
O'clock" he said. Applications for
volunteer work may be made at
the New Hanover Defense Council.
1t. Webb stressed the fact that
every attempt is being made to
inform the public of the complete
setup of the far-flung Aircraft
Warning System.
''It is important" he stated, 'that
the people of this city, one of the
key points in our coastal defense
system, understand the nature of
our work, not only here but as it
is practiced in every hamlet along
the Eastern seaboard.'
The most important factor in Air
Defense is speed. This is applied
to the three phases of our: Obtain
ing information, evaluating it, and
acting upon it.
The men who obtain our facts
for us, according to 1t. R. =. Webb,
are the civilian observers W h
have their posts spread out at in
tervals of from five to eight miles
along the coast and inland for hun
dreds of miles. Shifts of men and
women, all volunteers, spend four
hour periods on the alert at these
posts twenty-four hours a day.
They have special telephone lines
over which they report every plane
sighted or heard in the air. They
give approximate location Of t h
plane, its direction, how high it
flies, what type of ship it is, and
the number of planes in the flight.
No matter what physical condi-
tions may be, the posts are alert
all through the night and day.
There is never a minute that they
are left unnamed.
All the information gathered by
these posts is Immediately tele-
phoned, a matter of seconds, di-
rect to the filter center. A filter
center is a centrally located spot
in which there is map of an
entire area. The 'tplotter," also a
volunteer, at the filter board re-
ceives her information from t h e
'spotter" and sets up a flight
tree" on the spot where the plane
has been reported. This flight tree
is staff on which all the details
known about the flight are record
ed. A flight tree is not completed
until three "spotters" have sight
ed the same ship. Next to t h i S
tree is also plotted by arrows the
course. of the plane. Then their in
formation is checked, one against
the other, for accuracy, and t h e
ship is definitely plotted and its
course ascertained. -
Working on balcony overlook
ing the filter board is a group of
people whose job is to transmit the
sorted out on the fill
ter board, to the higher center, the
Center, which is h e |
local point for several filter cen
ters.
At the Information center, t h e
various filter boards are duplicat-
ed and combined on an Operation
Board. Again there is an overlook
ing balcony. Here there are repre-
sentatives of all agencies having
Jurisdiction over flights. They are
the Army, the Navy, and the Civil
Aeronautics Authority through
whom all flights are cleared.
These men either identify a ship
Or classify it as an enemy. Auto
matically an unidentified ship is
assumed to be hostile.
Should such a flight be found,
the vital information is available.
Trained officers ascertain it's prob
able detectives from the plotted
course on the Information Center
Board. They warn the various de-
fense agencies, Anti-aircraft artil-
lery, civilian defense, and intercept
tor aviation.
At this point the work is split
up. The Army has its clearly de-
fined field of action and it does
not overlap with that Of Civilian
Defense.
This entire process should n
take over three minutes or e s.
The magnitude of the problem and
its complexity require split-second
precision. The vital and indispen-
sable civilian force that provides
the backbone Of this system is nee
essary. The Army can supply Of
ficers and men, but the people
themselves must provide the
for the Observation
Posts and the ''plotters' for the
filter centers. The basic strength
of the entire organization rests in
the Observation posts and the Fill
ter boards. 4
The average aviation cadet who
flies bombers and transports,