TNA ADM 199 790

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Personal remarks by boner Richardon.
Criticisms.
The points that I would like to bring home in the
way of general criticism are:-
(1) When being bombed in daylight and at night it is apparently
the Army training for the men to lie over on their faces in
a huddled heap and to await the completion of the air raid.
I consider that if one lies over on one's face during an air
raid, one gets the impression that the bombs when falling with
very horrid shrieking noises are each and all coming to land
right in the small of one's back. There is little doubt that
the Army were considerably cowed by the bombing and I do feel
that this form of inactivity during a raid is psychologically
bad. I would have thought it better that the men be trained to
stand up and take cover and loose off their rifles and anyhow
look at the bomber, especially by day. It appeared to us obvious
which aircraft was going to be anywhere near us and which was
going to be miles away, while to watch the Army lying down with
their faces to the ground with the bombs shrieking, one could
see that they were going through a tricky time by being in such
a position. I saw no sign, except in one very isolated case,
of any of the Naval ratings being at all genuinely upset by
the bombing. Machine-gunning, though, was quite embarrassing.
(2)
I thought the pom poin fire of the Fleet and 4" barrage
fire to be most effective and consistent. The absence of
fighters was a source of great discussion and in many cases
bitter words. Although the reason for the absence of fighters
has been explained by the Prime Minister, I do feel that it is
psychologically right to have a few bombers directly over
the mentaking part in such an operation. There is no doubt
that when fighters were present bombers did not come, but as
soon/