HEAVY RAIN AND MIST

Evening Star, Issue 23698, 4 October 1940, Page 5

HEAVY RAIN AND MIST

CURTAIN OVER ENGLISH CHANNEL GERMAN AERIAL ACTIVITY REDUCED LONDON, October 3. (Received October 4, at 1.30 p.tn.) Heavy rain and dense mist, reducing visibility to a few hundred yards, drew a curtain over the English Channel this morning and reduced German aerial activity to isolated raiders, which appeared in the vicinity of the Midlands, also over north-east and south-east towns. A solitary bomber (lying low over a Midlands town released a row of explosives and incendiaries and damaged a factory and a large school. There were a number of casualties. A.R.P. squads rescued many children and factory workers from beneath the wreckage. A raider bombed and machine-gunned a main line train from London as it was passing a small Midlands town. Three people were sent to hospital. Bombing indiscriminately, a small number of raiders kept the London anti-aircraft defences in action for the longest period since the outbreak of war. Road traffic and pedestrians carried on as usual. Some bombs were dropped in the south-east district. Daylight raiders also dropped bombs

near South-east England and East London hospitals, shattering windows and wrecking shops and houses. A German bomber was shot down in the afternoon near Hertford. The four members of the crew surrendered to farm hands. The plane missed woods and crashed through a hedge into a field. LONDON’S ORDEAL CHECK TC EXAGGERATED STORIES TOUR BY PROVINCIAL JOURNALISTS LONDON, October 3. (Received October 4, at 12.30 p.m.) To combat exaggerated stories of London’s ordeal which evacuees had carried to the provinces the Government took a party of journalists from all parts of the United Kingdom on a tour of the worst bombed areas in the capital. The journalists were unanimous that the devastation was bad enough in places, but, on the whole, not nearly as bad as had been thought. The worst sight was in Dockland, where there were lines of shattered bricks and rubble which were once streets of houses. EARLIER TALLIES INCREASED BOMBER EXPLODES IN MID-AIR (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 3. (Received October 4, at 8 a.m.) The Air Ministry announced that up to 11 p.m. 10 enemy aircraft were destroyed' in air fights over Britain on Wednesday, nine by 11.A.F. fighters and one by anti-aircraft fire. It has now been ascertained that the Nazi bomber which exploded in midair after being hit by an anti-aircraft shell was destroyed before midnight on Tuesday. The explosion was terrific, pieces of the plane being scattered for miles. The total of enemy aircraft destroyed that day should thus be increased by one. Two more Nazi aircraft are added to Monday’s total, these having been brought down by Lewis gun fire. CASUALTIES IN LONDON A NAZI ASSESSMENT LONDON, October 3. (Received October 4, at noon.) The Bremen radio alleges that 13,000 persons have been killed or injured in London “ since the reprisal attacks began.” A German corarntiniquo claims that air raids against London and numerous military objectives in the South of England and the Midlands caused heavy damage. It says that several enemy planes penetrated nortHern and western frontier regions in Germany and occupied territory and dropped bombs without causing damage to objectives of military or war economic importance.