STURDY PLANES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 14 September 1940, Page 7

STURDY PLANES

NAZI FIRE WITHSTOOD

AMAZING STORIES

(United Press Association —Copyright.)

(British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 13. Many ol the pilots who are fighting again to-day in the fierce air ' battles over England owe their lives to the skill of the men who made fhe Spitfires and Hurricanes which cany them home, although battered by enemy shells and bullets.

After destroying a Messerschmitt 109, a Spitfire pilot had his aircraft severely damaged by shells from another Messerschmitt. He said : “My fuselage and one wing were hit. severing the rudder controls completely. The elevator cables and the wireless were also hit. I managed, however, to return to the base and made a forced landing with very little additional damage to the wing tips.” A squadron-leader shot down a Junkers 8S and then had to break away from the fight as the cooling mixture pipe of his Hurricane had been hit and the cockpit was filled with smoke and fumes. He had also been bit in the solo of his shoe, in the hood behind his head, in the air screw, and in each main plane. Three ignition leads to the starboard x block were shattered as well.

The pilot merely reported difficulty in getting back to his base.

BOMBS ON PROVINCES

NAZIS CHARY OF LONDON

FLIGHT FROM BARRAGE

(Rec. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 13. Anti-aircraft guns and British fighters went into action against the early morning raiders over London. Apparently dismayed by London’s shifting fence of exploding steel, which early in the night shook the capital like an earthquake, the Germans turned violent attention to the provinces, several areas having very long raids. A north-wist town endured its first serious attack. Two screaming bombs fell on a working class district, damaging 'houses and causing casualties. Incendiaries were showered down at various places as waves of raiders flew over and received a forceful welcome from anti-aircraft guns.

A high-explosive bomb damaged a casualty ward in a public assistance institution in a north east coast-town. An enemy plane was brought down in a street of a Welsh coastal town. Several bombers attacked a convoy off the East Coast of Scotland, but the members of the convoy were not damaged. * A few were fatally injured when a bomb fell in a Northern London district. Several shops were demolished and others seriously damaged. In another area bombs damaged several houses and a garage, and a few people sheltering there were killed. Between midnight and noon London was in a state of alarm for nine hours. The first warning was sounded less than two hours after the all-clear signal was given for the night’s second raid. The second alarm' lasted from 9.49 a.m. until 1.50 p.m. The sirens were sounded for the third time at 3.55 T) •m. . . i The all-clear signal for the third alarm sounded at 4.15 p.fii* A solitary plane diving from the clouds was responsible for the third warning, and pedestrians threw themselves at lull length on the roadways and pavements as the plane dropped bombs, setting fire to a building. - A raider dropped several incendiary bombs over the London district duung the second warning, but these were promptly extinguished. Heavy explosions were heard m Central London, then a deafening gunfire barrage broke out, and the streets were quickly deserted as shrapnel pattered on the roadways and rooftops.

DAMAGE TO CHURCHES

Several places affected in the past few days’ raids can now bo disclosed. The buildings damaged include Somerset House, the churches of Our Lady of Victories (Kensington), St. Magnus the Martyr, St. Switlnn’s (Cannon Street), St. Mary at the Hill, St. Dunstan’s in the East, St. Mary "Wool noth, St. Clement’s (East Cheap), St. Augustine’s (Watling' Street), and St. Giles (Cripplegate). Rotten Row and Berkeley Square are also affected. About five bombs fell in the vicinity of St. Paul’s on September 12; one is believed to have been of 500 lb.

A south-west suburb is beginning to resemble the East End ; there is hardly a street without a crater or craters. Windows are rare for a considerable length along the districts on the main road.

However, apart from a number of deaths when a shelter was directly hit, the casualties arc mostly confined to injuries sustained by hurling to the ground with or without the assistance of the bomb blast.

A 14-year-old girl, Mildred Castillo, ■was rescued alive ties afternoon from the ruins of a demolished house in a south-west suburb in which she had been buried since September 9. She had been believed dead, hut a passer-by heard her cries.

ON LIGHTER SCALE.

THURSDAY NIGHT’S RAIDS,

LONDON, Sept. 13.

It is officially stated that the enemy air attacks last night were not on a heavy scale, but were directed against many areas in Britain. Our defences at many points heavily engaged planes operating singly or in small formations.

A number of liigh-explosive bombs and incendiaries fell in and around London. Some fires broke out, but were quickly controlled. The damage was much less than on previous nights. Reports so far indicate that the casualties were very small. Some' houses were destroyed by bombs in Lancashire, also a town on the eastern outskirts of London. There were a small number of casualties in each place. Little damage and few casualties resulted elsewhere.