SWARMS OF FIGHTERS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 238, 5 July 1944, Page 5

SWARMS OF FIGHTERS

Attacks On Flying Bombs LONDON, July 4. Fighters operating over one area of southern England last evening shot down a high proportion of the total number of flying-bombs passing over. Fightdrs were swarming in the sky, in spite of adverse weather conditions. They pounced on the flying-bombs, sometimes chasing them through clouds. At least two bombs which were destroyed blew un in the air and others crashed in rural districts. Numbers of people were killed or injured and damage was caused in a. town in southern England when anti-aircraft guns shot down a flying-bomb. Today’s flying-bomb victims ■ included American, soldiers. Flying-bombs continue to cause many casualties in southern England. One crashed in a roadway and wrecked houses, under which several people were trapped, eight being killed and others injured. A workman who returned home last night from late shift found his home demolished and rescue workers digging in the ruins. The bodies of his wife and tiye children were later recovered. Several people were buried up to their necks in rubble when a flying bomb exploded in a group of houses in a southern town. Rescue workers rushed to their aid as fires threatened to spread to them, nnd they were extricated, suffering from slight injuries and burns. Veteran General Killed.

Among those killed by flying bombs during the weekend were Major-General Sir Arthur Scott, liged 82, who was the commander of the British Third Army in Ihe last war, and Sir Percy Alden, aged 79. a well-known educationist. Both men lived in Buckinghamshire, about 65 miles inland from the Channel coast. Paris radio says that ordinary planes, iu addition to flying bombs, attacked the London area and other parts of southern England last night, and that Plymouth and Portsmouth suffered heavily. Fighters and the anti-aircraft defences have taken heavy toll of firing-bombs projected against southern England in the past 24 hours. Two pilots of the Air Defence of Great Britain performed the hat-trick, each destroying three bombs during a single patrol.

INDOMITABLE COCKNEY

(Received July 4. 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 3. “Arc you afraid of flying-bombs?” an old Cockney was asked yesterday. His reply was: “No guv’nor. You sec they haven’t much chance against me. First. Jerry has to pop them off and that is Hot easy with our planes about. Then they have to cross the Channel, and that is not easy either. Then comes London — Jerry can’t miss that, but then he has to find Hackney, then Bluebell Avenue, then No. 59, and then most likely I’ll be down at the pub.”

ACE’S SIXTH DECORATION

LONDON, July 3. Britain’s leading fighter ace. Wing Commander Johnny Johnson, who has destroyed 33 enemy planes, has been awarded a second Bar to the D.S.O. He already holds the D.F.C. and Bar and the American D.F.C.