BIGGER ESCORTS

Evening Post, Volume c, Issue 82, 3 October 1940, Page 11

BIGGER ESCORTS

USED BY THE GERMANS

CLOUDS PROVIDE A COVER

DAYLIGHT RAIDS

(Official Wireless and U.1.A.)

(Received October 3, 1 p.m.)

LONDON, October 2

! The Germans again used large fighter escorts for their bombers, and ; one formation comprised 150 planes. A number of yellow-nosed Messei - schmitts were seen escorting a handful of bombers during London's fifth warning today. Large banks of cloud j provided the Germans with excellent i cover. The German wireless is reviving the attempts to make a running descrip-j tion of raids which were abandoned last month after a succession of debacles. It was announced at midday that big battles were occurring over the southern and middle areas of Eng-: land. One bomb last night burst at tho rear of a large hospital in the East \ End. Over 20 persons, including nurses i and patients, were injured, some ! latally. 1 , Four time bombs fell on private | houses in the south-east oii London. ! Seven high-explosive bombs were ! dropped within a radius of a mile in ! the East End, much damage beingcaused but no casualties. A number of buildings were damaged in a south- | eastern town when fighters chased a bomber. Machine-gun bullets fell like hail in the streets. The raider was | apparently attacking road traffic. A German communique claims that extensive fires and explosions were caused by attacks on London, southern j England, and the Midlands yesterday ; and last night. j A DIMINUTIVE PILOT. I A few minutes after it had machineI gunned the streets of an Essex town, j a German Dornier 17 bomber was shot J down by Hurricanes of the Fighter Command today. The Hurricane pilots were on their way home from patrol over the North Sea when they found the Dornier attacking an Essex town. By the time they reached it the enemy aircraft had climbed to 4000 feet. The German pilot tried dodging in and out of the cloud, but several Hurricanes I got in bursts of machine-gun fire and i the Dornier crashed 20 miles away, near a searchlight post. One Hurri- j cane pilot who had helped to shoot; down the Dornier landed near the spot and was congratulated by the surprised searchlight crew, who had taken four '■ of the German airmen prisoners. They were more surprised by his size than by his victory, for he was just over 4ft 3in, one of the smallest pilots in the R.A.F. Thames Estuary anti-air-craft guns destroyed one of today's j raiders—a Messerschmitt 109.

Last night anti-aircraft gunners were responsible for the loudest explosion heard over south-east London since bombing began. The gunners thought they had hit a German bomber, but the noise was so great that they wondered whether they had not perhaps exploded its bomb load as well. This morning they found the answer. They had done both. Their shells had struck one of the London night raiders and the bomber and its bombs exploded together. Pieces were found scattered over several miles of southeast London.