NAZIS IN BUND FURY

Evening Star, Issue 23686, 20 September 1940, Page 7

NAZIS IN BUND FURY

New Depth of Savagery No Pretence of Military Targets Innocent Civilians Slaughtered Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 19. (Received September 20, at 8 a.m.) Many observers regard last night’s raid on London as the most savage yet. The Germans flew lower than ever and took suicidal chances, frenziedly endeavouring to pierce the vast and hellish curtain of fire around and over London. The raiders made no effort to seek out military objectives and sought only to unload their bombs as near as possible to the heart of the capital. The chief gain from this barbaric onslaught was damage to objects of historic interest and the devastation of private property. Their would-be " reprisals have become expressions of blind fury at Britain’s resistance. Two raiders fell with a terrific explosion in a south-west suburb. A stirring scene was enacted in Central London when a bomb set fire to building. Over 1,000 people sheltering in the .vaults formed up like a battalion on parade and marched out in perfect order to nearby surface shelters. An Air Ministry communique reports that the enemy scattered high explosives blindly over the capital. Some heavycalibre bombs caused damage in many districts, but small dwellings in London and its suburbs were the main subject of the wanton attacks. Some houses were hit and wholly or partly demolished. Preliminary reports disclose that the casualties are heavy. They are provisionally estimated at 90 killed and 350 seriously injured. The .raiders’ activity was widespread, but comparatively slight outside London. A number of towns in Lancashire were raided, and houses and commercial buildings bit. A number were killed and injured. Bombs were dropped in towns in Herefordshire, Essex, Kent, Berkshire, Sussex, the Midlands,, and also in the north-east and south-west. A few were killed and injured.

NO FOOD SHORTAGE SUPPLIES UNIMPAIRED BY RAIDS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS IMPRESSED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 19. (Received September 20, at 10.42 a.m.) The complete failure of the enemy raids to impair London’s food supplies, claimed by the Minister of Food, Lord Woolton, is well borne out in reports made last night by two American correspondents. Mr John M'Vane, broadcasting from London on the national broadcasting system, said: “One of the N.B.C. observers came through Covent Garden and found it crammed with every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine. There were boxes of Tasmanian apples, South African grapefruit, and lettuce by the truck load, and many other perishable commodities which must have been brought in during the night. This does not mean that this big town has not been badly battered in the past 24 hours. It is merely a reminder that London is a vast area which cannot be knocked out by a few bombers in a few days or even weeks of constant raiding.

Mr H. R. Knickerbocker, in a message to New York, wrote: “This sort of destruction certainly is not going to win the war, and to-day, after touring the city’s principal markets, I can testify that the German radio’s claim that the Luftwaffe is gradually starving London js simply imbecile. If there is any shortage at Covent Garden, London’s biggest and most famous market, it is not visible to the naked eye. It takes just as long now to thread one’s way through its lanes and alleys, piled mountain-high with every variety of food, as ever it did in peace time.”

TRAGIC SCENES WIDESPREAD DAMAGE IN CITY. HISTORIC TREASURES SAFE DUKE OF KENT'S NARROW ESCAPE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 19. (Received September 20, at 12.30 p.m.) The daily occurrence of people spending the day waiting release from beneath the debris of razed buildings has been repeated in several districts. The man rescued from a buried automobile in a West End garage died in hospital. Twenty-five hours after a ; bomb had wrecked a shop rescuers heard a baby’s faint cries. It was a, four-months-old child lying in a drawer! Its parents and grandmother had been filled. Scores clad in night attire extinguished a series of fires which “ Molotov breadbaskets ” started in a northern residential area. The heaviest casualties resulted from a great explosion following the crashing Of a raider fully loadpd with bombs. Numbers of buildings were demolished. A rescue party was struggling all night to release persons* 1 imprisoned underground when a wall collapsed. The Inner Temple Library, the Public Record Office, the British Museum courtyard, the Wallace Collection courtyard, and Peter Robinson’s store are among the latest landmarks bombed. The majority of the treasures (including the Doomsday Book) housed in the Public Records. Office and in the museums were removed to safety after the outbreak of the war. A bomb in a suburb destroyed a Methodist church and five adjoining houses. The County Hall headquarters of the London County Council wore hit by a bomb. The hall’s fabric was damaged, hut its services are being maintained unimpaired. A bomb caused a 30ft crater on the terrace nearest the Westminster Bridge. Two waitresses were killed and there were a dozen casualties. Lord Croft stated that many incendiaries had fallen on the Royal Hospital at Chelsea. There were no casualties, and the buildings were undamaged. The directors of the Bank of England held a general court in the bank vaults. Mr Montagu Norman, announcing a dividend of 6 per cent., said precautions had been taken to ensure that business should be carried on in all emergencies. Their Majesties toured the badlybombed London areas, including Chelsea and Fulham, and talked with A.R.P. workers and the survivors of bombings. Cheering crouds surged around them. A time-bomb exploded 80yds Irum a car in which the Duke of Kent was touring the bombed areas, and a shower of rubble rained on the ear.

LONDON GOES TO EARTH TUBE STATIONS AS SHELTERS A STRANGE SPECTACLE Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 19. Although the Ministry of Home Security has appealed to the public, especially able-bodied men, not to use the tube stations as shelters, hundreds of thousands last night Swarmed to the underground platforms before the sirens sounded. The stations present one of the capital’s strangest spectacles now that Londoners have overcome their earlier diffidence arising from the notices at the entrances, “ This station is not to be used as a shelter. Thousands of East Enders arrived at the West End stations before dusk, equipped with blankets and baskets of food. They buy penny tickets in order to pass the barriers and make up beds, two or three deep. The police last night strolled up and down while news vendors sold the latest editions of the evening papers. Dozens of babies slept peacefully beside their parents, for many of whom the stations piovide the only roof since the destruction of their homes. CARE OF THE HOMELESS. The latest feature of London suburban life is the provision of rest centres by local authorites, where meals and temporary shelter are arranged for those whose homes have been destroyed or made untenable by enemy air action. The aim of the scheme is to provide accommodation for a few day while arrangements are made for .persons who lost their homes either to travel to those of friends or relatives, or be placed in billets or empty houses taken over by local authorities. Travel vouchers are being provided for those who are unable to pay their fare. In some cases it iu likely that return to home may be possible within a short period when repairs have been executed or unexploded bombs dealt with. Local authorities null, also arrange for the protection of furniture and property left behind, and if necessary remove and store it. Lord Londonderry has offered his Park Lane mansion, Londonderry House, one of the most famous mansions in England, for housing families rendered homeless by bombing. The offer was made in response to the Lord Mayor’s appeal for the London Distress Fund. COUNTY HALL CARRIES ON ASSURANCES TO PUBLIC (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 19. (Received September 20, at 10.42 a.m.) The following message ' from the leader of the London County Council has been made public:—“Although the fabric of the County Hall received some damage, I want to assure the public of London that the civil defence and other services of the L.C.C. are being maintained. In unity with and in service for London, the County Hall carries on.” KING and queen with their PEOPLE VISIT TO BOMBED AREAS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 19. (Received September 20, at 10.42 a.m.) The King and Queen once again spent the morning visiting areas, this time in south-west and west London, which suffered from the bombs of Nazi night raiders, and once again they were greeted by smiling faces and undaunted enthusiasm. The police made no attempt to keep the people away, and the King and Queen walked amid the scenes of devastation with cheering men, women, and children brushing alongside them. NAZI LOSSES FIVE MORE BOMBERS DOWN LONDON, September 19. (Received September 20, at noon.) With a slight mist hanging over Dover Straits and the sky overcast and a stiff south-westerly blowing, the Air Ministry stated that our fighters shot down five enemy bombers. A single German raider bombed the London area this afternoon, doing considerable damage. South-east England was also bombed, but apart from isolated attacks which caused several casualties, German activity over England was exceptionally slight. A number of the Home Office windows were broken by a blast. The flat of Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P., was bombed twice in her absence. TRAINING SCHEMES IMPORTANT FACTOR IN WAR WORK LONDON, September 19.’ (Received September 20, at 8 a.m.) ’The department of the Ministry of Labour, which' is responsible for developing Government training centres and for providing semi-skilled munition workers and supervising the increase in private training schemes, which had been evacuated to the country, has been brought hack to London. The decision says the 'Minister of Labour, emphasised not only the Ministry’s view of the increased importance of training, hut also its resolve to carry on in London.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS ATTACKS ON INVASION OASES R.A.F. S RELENTLESS BOMBARDMENT FIVE-HOUR RAID ON LE HAVRE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 19. (Received September 20, at 11.10 a.m.) Continuing their relentless hammering of the enemy’s Channel ports, bomber squadrons of the R A.F. last night again attacked shipping concentrations, docks, and harbour installations from Flushing in the north to Le Havre in the south-west. Le Havre was singled out for the night’s heaviest bombardment. Attacking in relays, a strong force of heavy bombers kept up an almost continuous assault upon harbours, docks, and shipping for close on five hours. Many tons of high explosive bombs and great quantities of incendiary bombs were unloaded on the target in the face of fierce opposition from the ground defences One of the earlier raiders attacked from a low level beneath the clouds. As its first stick of heavy bombs fell across the dock there was a white flash of a terrific explosion, followed immediately after by a second and smaller explosion which appeared to come either from a ship moored alongside the Basin do Maree or from a large warehouse on the quayside. The great fire which grew out of the second explosion quickly spread, and could be seen still blazing strongly hy the bomber’s crew when they were 50 miles away on their return journey. When the following aircraft pressed home their attacks sticks of high explosive bombs were seen to burst along the quayside of the 'Basin de Maree, across the docks at the Quai de Saigou, and to straddle the Basin Ballot from north-east to south-west. The fire which soon broke out spread among the shipping massed in the Maree Basin and in the dry dock near the Quai de Saigon. A stick of bombs was dropped across the dock from such a low level that the violence of the explosion shook the crew of the attacking aircraft. By 11 p.m. fires were raging in many parts of the harbour. A large ship alongside the quay was burning‘‘strongly, and a 7,000-ton ship about a mile north of Honfleur was seen to be ablaze, the flames lighting up the bank of low clouds which hung over the docks and the -town. Relays of aircraft continued the bombardment until the early hours of the morning. Again and again the docks and ships alongside were straddled with sticks of high explosive bombs. Other invasion., bases at Flushing, Boulogne, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Antwerp, and Zeebrugge were also heavily attacked during the night, while other sections of the 11.A.F. forces, .concentrating on rail and communication centres in Germany, bombed the goods yards at Mannheim, Krofeld, Hamm, Osnabruck. Ehrang, and Brussels. Aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked a convoy off Borkum. Direct hits were registered on an enemy destroyer. Other Coastal Command aircraft attacked the port of Cherbourg, shipping off the Dutch coast, and the aerodrome of Decooy. Seven R.A.F. aircraft are missing. EXTENSIVE OPERATIONS. While the main attack on Le Havre was in progress other sections ol Wednesday night’s large raiding force were ranging the French, Dutch, and Belgian coast lines bombarding the invasion bases at Boulogne, Calais, Dieppe, Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Ostend, Flushing, and Antwerp. At Boulogne low cloud hampered the attackers, and several raiders cruised for over an hour, in the vicinity of their targets awaiting a break in the clouds and a favourable opportunity to attack. Sticks of bombs were then dropped across the dock from the Loubet Basin to the tidal harbour. The electric power house was believed to have been struck at Dieppe, whore a violent explosion and a blueish-green flash followed the bursting of a salvo of bombs. During the raid on Ostend one attacking aircraft, flying at 1,500 ft, was turned over on its back by the blast of a great explosion which lollowed the bursting of a bomb. The docks at Flushing were subjected to -0 minutes’ intense bombardment. Many bursts were seen on the target area and on dockside buildings, and explosions broke out ou the quaysides among several extensive fires started by raiders. One could be seen for a quarter of an hour after leaving the docks. . Among other objectives attacked was a big railway yard at Brussels, where fires broke out and caused explosions which continued for 20 minutes. The long-range gun emplacements at Cap Gris Nez were again bombed, and after a low-level attack by one bomber the crew observed quantities of material flung into the air. A few minutes later, several miles out to sea, the same crew saw' the flash of a great explosion. GERMAN ADMISSION HAMBURG SEVERELY DAMAGED BERLIN. September 19. (Received September 20, at 12.30 p.m.) A German news agency staled that the R.A.F. had severely damaged districts in Hamburg.