German Night Raid MONDAY NIGHT RAIDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 9

German Night Raid

MONDAY NIGHT RAIDS

HEAVIER CASUALTIES IN BRITAIN FEARED

v (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received October 15, noon.) LONDON, October 14. The Air Ministry reports that the enemy attacks last night were on a somewhat larger scale in the London area. Damage was caused to residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, and it is feared that the number of killed and injured was somewhat larger than in recent night attacks.

Blocks of flats, tenements, communal shelters, and a convent were among places bombed in 36 London districts and 20 provincial areas. The raiders came in relays in the early morning. One of them machinegunned streets in London and district. A trolley bus was wrecked while the passengers and the driver were taking shelter. Two bombs wrecked four blocks of flats, including one in the I London area. One bomb hit a shel- | ter, two persons being killed and a number injured. Three bombs demolished a number of workmg-class houses and small shops and hit an Anderson shelter. It is feared there were some casualties among residents of an outlying district where it is reported that 16 bombs were dropped in I less than a minute.

Many casualties were caused when a block of flats was hit.

Bombs were dropped at several points in the home counties, but the number of casualties is not large. Buildings were destroyed in Merseyside towns and a considerable amount of damage was done in a north-eastern town, where many houses were wrecked and direct hits levelled two surface shelters. Those killed included a soldier whose body was found lying across a dead child whom he had apparently sought to protect. One -family lost the father and two sons. The mother of another family is in hospital and two of her four children are dead.

The Mayor and Mayoress were trapped under debris when a south-eastern town was bombed. Rescue squads extricated their bodies early this morning, and later they recovered the bodies of the eldest son and a grand-daughter, aged four. Another grand-daughter, who was taken to hospital, died. A daughter-in-law, two other women, and a maid were admitted to hospital seriously injured.

The terrific anti-aircraft barrage was so successful against raiders over Liverpool and district last night and early this morning that only the last raider was able to come comparatively low. It loosed its bombs indiscriminately and hit the two ends of a large block of tenements, causing casualties which included some children. Others shattered houses in working-class streets. One bomb of heavy calibre demolished two four-storey houses. An elderly coloured man was rescued from a cellar after three hours. He told the workers where to search for his wife. Even hardened A.R.P. workers cheered his fortitude as he was removed on * stretcher. A number of people, including children, are believed to have been buried in the ruins of adjoining houses. PUBLIC HOUSE AND HOSPITAL HIT. A London public house was bombed The majority of those killed and injured were in the public bar. Rescuers who were hampered by escaping gas worked all night extricating the victims.

An oil bomb destroyed parts of a hospital, including the operating theatre. The staff put out the flames. All the patients had been evacuated. Today an explosive bomb which fell in the grounds of the same hospital demolished three houses, the occupants of which were sheltering and so were not injured.

A bomb which fell in the middle of a block of flats killed a number of the tenants who were sheltering in the basement, on which tons of debris crashed down. Flats on either side were cut in half. Mobile cranes were used in recovering bodies.

Bombs hit a row of cottages in a home counties district and two persons were killed and thirteen injured.

A Salvation Army citadel in the London area was wrecked last night.

Five thousand members of the Pioneer Corps set out this morning to clear up the London air raid wreckage.

[ Heavy gunfire was heard in London and district during the first "alert" today. Anti-aircraft batteries went into action against a large four-engined bomber which was seen flying high over a London suburb. The raider was dropping bombs as it dived. Later it was reported to have crashed in open ground. Isolated bombers attacked towns in the Thames Estuary, the Midlands, and the home counties this afternoon, demolishing business premises and houses and causing some casualties. A plane which attacked a town on the Thames Estuary caught hundreds of shoppers napping and dropped five, bombs in residential districts, demolishing five houses. It is believed that many residents were buried. Five bombs fell in a town in the jwest of Scotland this morning, three of which were of the delayed action I type, necessitating the evacuation of 200 families from homes. | There were no casualties and little 'damage in other parts.

A German communique says that bombers continued reprisal attacks on London, causing large fires, and also bombed Liverpool, the Midlands, and the south of England.

AN EARLIER START

LARGE NUMBER OF BOA/IBS DROPPED

LONDON, October 14,

Tonight's German raids on London began rather earlier than usual, and planes have been coming over frequently. In the earlier stages the gunfire was intense and a large number of bombs were dropped. Fire bombs showered on some districts and the raiders again dropped flares, some of which were shot down by machinegun fire.

One London street received today what is described as "a basket of bombs" from which explosives were

scattered in the same way in which fire bombs fall from a Molotov "bread basket."

In another area a doctor was suspended by his heels from a crane and lowered to the bottom of a hole to attend a man buried under a house. Only the man's head was protruding" from the wreckage. He was given morphia injections in the neck. He is now in hospital and is expected to live. Liverpool's anti-aircraft fire was the heaviest for seven weeks. In the north-east houses and comimercial premises wsre damaged and there were deaths in two shelters I which were hit.

A town in south-east England had one of its worst night raids of the war.