THURSDAY NIGHT'S RAIDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 251, 20 September 1940, Page 8

THURSDAY NIGHT'S RAIDS.

DEFENCE BATTERIES IN ACTION. (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 2.5 p.m.) RUGBY,-Sept. 19. An alert warning was given by the air raid sirens in London on Thursday night. The 13th consecutive visit to the capital by Germans during the hours of darkness was greeted with the customary calm, most households in the suburbs having made all preparations to bo ready for as comfortable a night as possible in anticipation that the Germans would again demonstrate their own peculiarly brutal brand of warfare in senseless and indiscriminate bomb dropping on the homes of innocent citizens. Heavy anti-aircraft fire was immediately heard in the Central London area, but it is stated that t'he lone German bombers were driven away. A few bombs were dropped in suburban districts at the early stage of the raid. IMPROVED SHELTERS.. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Home Security, announcing in a broadcast speech that active steps are being taken to improve the air raid shelter facilities in London both in regard to the amenities in the existing shelters and for extending the provision of public shelters where occupants can gain satisfactory rest, said: “The enemy wants to make casualties of us all. Unfortunately, he must make casualties of some of us. and we all sympathise with those who have suffered already, and admire the fortitude with which the sufferings are being borne. “But if . each of us, by individual efforts in studying the use of the shelter, can deprive the enemy of one casualty then we,"too, like the soldiers in the line, shall have played an active part.” GENERAL KILLED. Major-General and Mrs C. J. B. Hay were killed when a bomb last night crashed through the roof of a West End hotel and carried the wreckage down several floors. The remainder of the 200 guests and staff were not hurt. , . , ~ • i * Rescuers continued into the night digging the debris for the buried as the result of damage when a bombladen raider crashed last night, lhose trapped under a bombed school which was the headquarters of the local fire and ambulance services include nurses, fire girls, and stretcher bearers.

Major-General Hay, who saw considerable military service, was InspectorGeneral of the Iraq Army and head of the British Military Mission to Iraq from 1934 to 1937, in which year he retired. .