WALL OF STEEL

Evening Star, Issue 23679, 12 September 1940, Page 9

WALL OF STEEL

LONDON’S AIR DEFENCES NAZIS ENCOUNTER HEAVY BARRAGE SPITFIRES COMPLETE DISPERSAL OF RAIDERS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 11. (Received September 12, at 11.30 a.m.) Sirens sounded in London four times this afternoon, the last occasion being at 8.42. Soon after the second warning in mid-afternoon heavy anti-aircraft batteries went into action against a large number of German planes flyino extremely high over London. Big forces tried to penetrate the defences. The thud of bombs was heard, and thousands of shells peppered the sky. It was one of the heaviest barrages of the war. Wave after wave of raiders broke against a wall nf ctaal The anti-aircraft guns suddenly ceased.- Spitfires then completed the dispersal of the raiders, after which “ All clear ” notified Londoners that the defence was again victorious. PREVIOUS NIGHT’S RAIDS. High explosives last night demolished a five-story working class apartment house, wrecking 50 flats. Five persons were killed, including three men forming a stirrup-pump team in a porchway. They were not intimidated by a bomb

which fell a few minutes earlier. They were crushed under the building. Four persons were killed and several injured when a bomb hit a shelter accommodating 25,000 people. Bombs fell near three famous London museums, but the exhibits were little damaged. The underground railway services are now almost normal on all lines except one or two sections ■where the services were temporarily suspended. HEROIC FIREMEN. The fires started in last night’s raids on London are still burning. A pall of smoke hung overhead as Londoners began another day’s work. The City and East End again received a terrible hammering. Bombs fell almost without intermission throughout the hours of darkness. The auxiliary and regular firemen were again the heroes of the night in wrestling with the outbreaks under the constant threat of further bombs. Four high explosive bombs followed incendiaries, which burst on the warehouse and business area in Central London, causing fires. Some buildings were seriously damaged. Firemen working in the street where the blaze was most intense clambered to the upper floor of a slightly-burning building in order to direct hoses on premises more seriously threatened. A flaming bread-basket fell outside a shop and burning oil spread along the street. Members of the A.F.S. extinguished the flames while bombs were falling in the adjoining streets, in which houses were demolished. An aerial torpedo completed the destruction of blocks of shops in an area

whore smaller bombs caused damage on the previous night. It is feared that many men, women, and children who were evacuated from their homes after Saturday’s raids were killed when an East End school was wrecked. The school was used as a refuge for about 500 homeless people. Doctors and nurses worked with torches, treating the survivors rescued from under tons of debris, masonry, and girders which crumbled down on the refugees, who were sheltering on the ground door. The rescuers found two babies, nine and six months old respectively, alive under the ruins. Dozens of streets in this area pre-

seated a scene of mass wreckage. Many people on emerging from the Anderson shelters found their homes demolished. TERRIFIC GUNFIRE START OF LAST NIGHT S RAIDS LONDON, September 11. (Received September 12, at 1 p.m.) Terrific gunfire, eclipsing everything so far throughout the raids, was heard in central London at the end of the firsthour of the night raid.