The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-03-17
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
s. J. WOOlf Visits Only American Anti-Aircraft Battery
 In London Area And Sees Guns Blast At German Raiders
. . .
By s. ]. wOOLF NRA Stan COrresnandent

London March i7- As drove Through e wood at dusk and fright- sned deer darted into the under brush, war seemed very far away. But a frozen looking sentry who stepped out of his boxlike shelter and asked to see my papers brought me back to earth. had arrived at the only America n anti-aircraft battery within London's inner artil- lery zone.
 Capt. David B. Lawrence of Osakias, Minn., who at one time was civil engineer. is the com manding officer of the men station- ed here. He is over six feet tall, a good looking chap whose high cheekbones reveal his Scandinavian ancestry. He said he had not been home for more than two years as he showed me photograph of his wife and baby son whom he has never seen.
 Before coming here, he had been In Iceland. So, too, had Lieut.. Dun- can Boughner of Canistoe, N. Y, who showed me around the base.
 The moon was up, turning the sentries into ghostly figures and making the long, thin 90mm guns sllhouetted against the luminous sky look more like painting by Winslow Homer than actual weap- ors of war.
 SEES NERVE CENTER
 Encircling each gun is q wall five feet high. From this, storage vaults for ammunition jut Into the en- closure. Between each of there tiny lamp shoots It's rays downward,
 There aye several such gun em- placements surrounding the Post Command. This is small room some six feet underground, in which there are a switchboard and large map of the vicinity divided into numbered squares. On this the paths of attacking planes are mark ed az they are located by q system which also normally controls the gun fire.
 Two youngsters sat at the switch- board. They were Sergeant Albert Ouelette, who was truck driver in Detroit, but is now chief radio oper- ator of this battery, and Pfc Billy Drew, his assistant, former press man from Port Arthur, Tex. Drew is Q silent chap, but Ouelette sup piled the deficiency.
 T am glad you got down here, |" he said. For we are the nerve center of this place and they bury us underground and we're forgotten men," From time to time the phone rang, but the messages apparently were more or less routine. One, how ever was different. For as he an- swerOd 1t, he grabbed a piece ol Enemy activity expected shortly paper and said aloud as he wrote, This was a first warning.
 When the second one came m, the crew would man the guns We waited for well over an hour but nothing happened. At about ll:3o all of us except those on switch board duty turned in, I shared Billet with Lieut. William Stoddard of Richmond, Utah. 1 noticed that in preparing for bed he kept on most of his undcrgarments md that hanging nearby WIS a one piece suit, similar to one made famous by Mir, Churchill when he was photographed in 1t in the United States
 EASY TO DRESS
 About 3;30 I was awakened by the changing of bell, Stoddard yelled that I should dress, As all I had taken of was my trench coat, 1t did not take mo any long CT to put on that and my helmet than 1t took him to slip into his one-plece fighting suit. Then we made for a gun site, Luminous discs along the sides of the paths showed us the way They were needed, for by this time clouds filled the sky,
 The six men making up the crew had already taken their positions and the "ammo" men who carry the ammunition to them were standing by when we arrived. Far in the distance Searchlights were