SLEEPY-EYED BUT STOUT-HEARTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 7

SLEEPY-EYED BUT STOUT-HEARTED.

BACK TO WORK. Londoners At Jobs After Week-End Of Raids. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Reed, noon.) LONDON, Sept. 9. Londoners, sleepy-eyed but stouthearted \rent to work to-day (Monday) determinedly. Nevertheless, many were late owing to traffic difficulties in some areas. People living in unbombed districts quickly realised the happenings elsewhere when they saw unfamiliar buses which had been re-routed to avoid craters or debris littered on the roads. Fires have already been extinguished. Some workers were obliged to change buses three or four time*. The proximity of bombers forced newspaper staffs to abandon their work, consequently printing was extremely late and distribution was also delayed by interruptions on some of the usual routes. Relays of German aircraft operating independently attacked the London area on Sunday night, starting more fires and damaging buildings and homes. The raid lasted from 8.8 p.m. on Sunday until 5.38 a.m. on Monday, or nine and a half hours—the longest period so far. At least 21 German machines were shot down .during the night. It is authoritatively estimated that at least 150 enemy machines, mostly operating singly, were engaged in last night's raid. A member of the civil defence 6aid: "The raiders are not operating in mass formations, but th<ir intention is still obviously to wipe us off the ma; Our services are functioning marvellously under stress." Relays of Aircraft. An official communique states that th» enemy employed successive relays >f aircraft, which operated independently and dropped bombs over a widespread irea of London. At no time was there an extensive attack by large forces. The more deliberate attacks, continues the communique, were again .made on the Thames-side district. Here a number of fires were caused. Elsewhere in London bombing resulted in temporary interruption to public services, and considerable damage to private houses and to some public and commercial buildings. Three of one group of eight enemy aircraft were brought down by one antiaircraft battery in the space of one minute, the credit going to a 22-year-old gunner. Two minutes after the sirens sounded in the evening enemy aeroplanes were reported over south-east England. Immediately after the warning one of the heaviest anti-aircraft bombardments since the beginning of the mass raids opened up from the outer district of London. Raiders also approached London from another direction.