GRUELLING FOR NAZIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 16 September 1940, Page 8

GRUELLING FOR NAZIS

WAVES OF BOMBERS HARASSED BY R.A.F.. MASS ATTACKS RESISTED. (United Press Association —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 1.50 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 10. The great air battles to-day made it one of the most costly days for the German air force nearly a month, states the Air Ministry News Service. During the day between 250 and 400 enemy aircraft were launched in two waves against London and the South-East Coast. The great majority of the German raiders that escaped were chivvied and harassed at all stages.The first wave came in the morning about 11.30 o’clock when about 2QO bombers and fighters began to cross the English coast in about eight or ten different groups. They streamed in above the cliffs and beaches between Dover and Dungeness. _ _ The second attack began about 2.10 p.m., when about ten groups of bombers and fighters, totalling 150 to 200, crossed the same stretch of coast. .Later in the afternoon two smaller attacks were made on the Portland and Southampton areas. In every case fighters on patrol were ready to meet the enemy, who, in the two "main attacks on the London area, received a gruelling such as they had never before experienced. Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons, many veterans in the defence of London,, fought them over the Kent coast. -Maidstone, Canterbury, above' the Medway and the Thames Estuary. CHA SED FOR MILES. Many were turned back. The survivors they fought again over London itself, squadron after squadron of fighters flying fresh into action. Finally they were chased back again and out of the Channel from whence they came. - A squadron of' Hurricanes which destroyed nine of the enemy began the fight over London and ended up over the cliffs of Hastings. Another chased a group of bombers from the Thames at Hammersmith to Beachy Head, shooting down five on the way. . A formation of Hurricanes which caught some of the enemy just as they were coming up the Thames handled them so roughly that one pilot thought it was unlikely that any of the bombers would reach home, five Dorniers being definitely shot down. Another Hurricane pilot who topk part in the first stage of this attaik described how the Dorniers broke formation trying to dive for a cloud, pursued by the Hurricanes. When the remaining Dorniers began the flightto the coast they were no longer a lof-i mation, hut merely the centre of a general melee through which the Spitfires and Hurricanes were flying at will, choosing whichever target pleased them. LONDONERS HEARTENED. Londoners heard the fourth air raid warning at 8.10 p.m., but were well prepared for facing another noisy night. Not only had they uhc greatest confidence in the new anti-aircraft barrage, but also the news that 175 enemy machines had been destroyed the day, and at the same 'time (hat British bombers had given severe treat-, ment to enemy invasion barges and other concentrations, was regarded ag particularly encouraging. Many Londoners had also seen evidence of the R.A.F. successes in pieces of German aeroplane wreckage lying in Central London and the suburban areas, such as Kensington, the Oval. iStreatbam, and Victoria Railway Station. ;

3.45 P.M. EDITION