HOUSES CRASH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 243, 11 September 1940, Page 7

HOUSES CRASH

DESTRUCTION IN LONDON.

POIGNANT INCIDENTS

(Rec. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 10The sirens were sounded iii London five times to-day from 1.7 p.m. to 8.17 p.m. The first four warnings were of short duration, but the fifth is continuing. Immediately after the first alarm there was a thrilling “dog fight” over London between enemy planes and British fighters. The exchange of machine-gun fire was heard in the crowded streets.

Twenty-two houses were demolished with casualties in two adjoining streets of a south-east London area. A number were killed when a bomb fell at the corner of two streets in Central London, sending seven houses crashing to the ground. Fifteen hours after a house in South-East London had been dernolished by a bomb rescuers were still working to release a family of five who were entombed • under t'he debris.

A. stretcher party were killed while on duty in South-West London. A fire which threatened the Bow Church was one of the biggest. Hundreds of firemen worked feverishly in the narrow side streets and saved the church.

Many people in an East London district have been without gas since Saturday night. Some localities arc temporarily without bot'h gas and water. The communal feeding system instituted in the East End is working effectively. The Minister of Food (Lord Woolton) urged traders to get stocks from the docks as speedily as possible. Retailers were warned to shelter then" stocks. Splinters and glass have pierced even canned foods. A raider drooped a salvo of bombs on the residential area of a south-east seaside town at \ noon to-day. Two women were killed and several people injured. GREAT EXPLOSIONS.

An earlier report, from Montreal, stated: The New York Times correspondent says buildings in the heart of London were shattered by 5001 b bombs early this morning from - successive waves of raiders. The explosions were so great that they knocked fleeing civilians off their feet. A world-famous street was littered inches deep in glass and debris. Three churches known to all tourists were threatened by an extensive fire in adjoining offices. Bursting anti-aircraft shells brought down three Nazis simultaneously and blew a fourth to pieces. Tho worst sufferers are believed to be the East End, South-West, and Central London. The Polish fighter squadron shot down 31 planes in air battles on Thursday, Friday and Saturday/ Sir Archibald Sinclair (Air Minister) lias sent a message of congratulation to General Sikorski.