LONDON DOCKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24399, 10 September 1940, Page 7

LONDON DOCKS

CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE PORT NOT IMMOBILISED ENEMY'S SEVERE LOSSES LONDON, Sept. 8. A Port of London Authority official stated: "While the docks are considerably damaged, the Port of London is not immobilised. The principal discharging and loading berths are intact. The loss of foodstuffs is not severe, and the services will be maintained." The major weight of the enemy's offensive was concentrated on both banks of the Thames, east of the city, especially the riverside, where three extensive fires and a number of others were caused. Much damage was done and a number of persons were rendered temporarily homeless, but were successfully removed from the danger area, and immediate steps were taken to provide them with food and shelter. Bombs also fell on a utility plant in this area* and some services were seriously interfered with. The German Air Force lost for certain nearly a quarter of the strength with which it raided London yesterday. At the opening of the campaign, which, according to a German High Command communique, is directing personally from Northern France, its loss was probably even higher. The losses given in the German communique—94 British to 26 German—is in accordance with the familiar practice of citing figures which roughly reverse the actual result of the air battles. The statement in the same communique that these attacks " on the important military objectives of London.".—in which it has been provisionally estimated by the Ministry of Home Security that ■ about 400 civilian men, women and children were killed and 1300 to 1400 were injured—are a reprisal for those of the R.A.F. "on residential quarters and non-military objectives in the Reich" must be supposed to represent a similar antithesis.