Zeppelin Raid Safety Tips

I'm off for a week or so on Her Majesty's service, so I'll leave you to ponder this safety tip in the meantime!

When the Zeppelins Come
A FEW USEFUL HINTS FOR PERSONAL SAFETY

The following rules of what to do in case of a Zeppelin raid are given on the authority of the Home office:-

Get indoors as soon as you hear the first bomb fall or the first gun fire, and stay there until the firing is well over.Find the best cover you can. Go down to the lowest floor-the cellar, if you have one. Keep away from the window. Flying splinters of glass are highly dangerous.

Make sure of a plentiful supply of water to put out fires due to incendiary bombs. Dry fine sand and dry fine soil are useful for putting a fire out, but water is the easiest and best safeguard.

Never touch an unexploded bomb or shell.

If you are in the street when a bombardment begins keep cool and make for the best cover you can find. Excitement and thoughtlessness are as bad as fright. If no shelter be available and bombs are dropping near you, throw yourself down on your face. You thereby reduce the mark for rising splinters, and you have a better chance of saving your face.

Do not be in a hurry to come out of your shelter. Remember that even when the Zeppelin had passed over you a shell aimed at her miles away may conceivably drop missiles into your street.

[Shropshire Archive reference: Shrewsbury Chronicle, 16 February 1916] http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/roots/packages/war/war_z06e.htm