Raiders Broken Up By Wall Of Fire

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 7

Raiders Broken Up By Wall Of Fire

LONDON BARRAGE Terrific Resistance By Anti-Aircraft Artillery (United Press Association.—Coprrlght-—Eec. 12.30 p.m.} LONDON. September 11. Official reports up to midnight show that British fighters to-day destroyed 90 enemy 'planes. Seventeen fighters have been lost, but three of the pilots are safe. Sirens sounded in London four times this afternoon, the last alarm being at 8.42 p.m. Soon after the second warning, in the mid-afternoon, heavy anti-aircraft guns came into action against a large number of German 'planes, flying extremely high over London. Big forces tried to penetrate the defences. The thud of bombs was heard, and thousands of shells peppered the sky in one of the heaviest barrages of the war. Wave after wave of raiders broke against the wall of fire. The anti-aircraft guns suddenly ceased and Spitfires then completed the dispersal of the raiders, after which the "all clear" signal notified Londoners that the defence 'was again victorious. High explosive bombs last night demolished a five-storey working-class apartment house, wrecking 50 flats. Five persons were killed, including three men forming a stirrup pump team in a porchway. They had not been intimidated by a bomb which fell a few minutes earlier. They were crushed under die building. Four were killed and several injured when a bomb hit a shelter accommodating thousands. Bombs fell near three famous London museums. The exhibits were little damaged. Subway Traffic Near Normal. The underground railway services are now almost normal on all lines, except one or two short sections, where the services are temporarily suspended. Terrific gunfire, eclipsing everything since the raids began, was heard in central London at the end of the first hour of the night raid. The raiders most determinedly attacked one area, where they concentrated scores of bombs in a small space. Several delayed action bombs in the same district ■went off during the night, damaging several houses. There were some casualties when a bomb hit a hospital in the central district. A Roman Catholic church was demolished in central London. Valuable music, manuscripts and antique furniture was destroyed when the home of a well-known woman pianist 'was damaged. Dropping from the clouds despite fierce anti-aircraft fire, a Dornier unloaded a bomb cargo against a train en route to the coast from London. The bomb fell through the r4of of an empty carriage, causing a fire, which w.«s quickly extinguished.