RANDOM AIR RAIDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 16 September 1940, Page 7

RANDOM AIR RAIDS.

FRIDAY. AND SATURDAY. DESPERATE ENEMY TACTICS. LONDON, Sept. 14. London’s anti-aircraft barrage was intermittently in action last night throughout eight and a half hours, the warning period ending at 5.30 a.m. In South Wales high-explosive and incendiary bombs which fell in one town damaged houses and other buildings. It is officially stated that the enemy air attacks last night were mainly concentrated on the London area and a South Welsh town. The attacks on London were maintained almost throughout the night. Most of the. damage was done in eastern, southern and south-western districts to dwellings and industrial premises. Fires which were caused arc all under control. To-day an air-raid warning in the London area was in operation for 15 minutes from 9.28 a.m. At 11 n.m. the sirens sounded the alert for the second time to-day. signalling the thirtieth attempted attack since a week ago. The alarm was over at 11.16 a.m. and, like the earlier one, it passed without the sound of aircraft, bombs or gunfire heard in Central London. To-day’s activities over Britain, which were on a small scale and intermittent but widely distributed and almost entirely terroristic in character, arc described in a long communiaue issued shortly before midnight bv the Air Ministry and Ministry of Homo Security. Tt stated :

WATERING PLACES BOMBED,

“Throughout this morning ineffectual .enemy aircraft kept up a series of attacks, during one of which bombs were dropped in a London area. Other morning attacks were in the south-east of England and East Anglia. In one south coast town a hospital was hit and several houses and buildings were damaged. The casualties both in London and elsewhere were very slight. In tho early afternoon another enemy attack penetrated to the London area and bombs were dropped in the southwest of London, but very little damage was done.

“During this period several south coast towns were subjected to random bombing by the enemy. The damage and casualties were slight, excepting two of these towns —Brighton and Eastbourne. At Brighton several people were killed and a number injured. At Eastbourne considerable damage was done to houses and there were a small number of fatal casualties and several persons were injured. One of the enemy attacks in the afternoon demolished a church and several houses in Ipswich. The casualties, however, wero very slight. “High-explosive bombs were dropped in a town in the north-west of England and severe damage was done in and near industrial buildings. “Two further attacks were made in tho London area during the evening. In the first of these a church in a south-west area was hit and there were some casualties. The indications arc that no extensive damage has boon caused in London to-day and that the number of casualties lias not been heavy.” HOTLY ENGAGED. Never before have there been so many British fighters over London as this afternoon, when thousands saw large formations race in from two directions and engage heavy concentrations of German bombers and fighters. The British fighters had spent hours patrolling the areas through which the Germans were attempting to break throughout the day. They turned back 100 raiders during the first desperate attempt in the afternoon to get to London from the South Coast, and the raiders scattered without dropping their bombs. Two hundred Germans in the second afternoon raid were engaged in the fiercest battle. Bombs fell on a town on tho South-East Coast, hitting a cinema and killing four children and two adults and injuring others. An airraid warden and a first-aid worker were also killed.

When some enemy planes penetrated the London area, hotly chased by Spitfires, the Germans dropped bombs at random, damaging houses and a children’s hospital and partly wrecking a maternity hospital, m which no casualties resulted. Other raiders concentrated on testing the defences over widespread areas of England and Wa’es,, particularly on the South-East Coast. A pavilion in the north-west of England, where children were holding a party, was hit. A dive-bomber demolished the pavilion and caused casualties. A wedding was interrupted in a south-east town when a whistling bomb fell outside the church. The ceremony was completed amid falling bombs, which caused the church to shake and broke its windows. The couple left to find the bridal car buried under debris. One person was killed and several were injured nearby. The number of enemy aircraft' de-_ stroyed last night and to-day is an-' nounced in an Air Ministry communique, which states: “Two enemy bombers were shot down by anti-air-craft guns in the early hours of this morning. This makes three during the

night. Eight enemy aircraft were shot down by fighters during the day. The total number of enemy aircraft destroyed up to 8.30 p.m. is 11 since midnight. Four of our. fighters were lost, but the pilot of one is safe.