PALACE BOMBED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24403, 14 September 1940, Page 11

PALACE BOMBED

KING AND QUEEN SAFE LONG DAYLIGHT RAID REDUCED CASUALTY LISTS .'." ■' (By Wireless) LONDON, Sept. 13. (Received Sept. 14, at 1.15 a.m.) More bombs were dropped on Buckingham Palace in an air raid which took place this morning. The Ministry of Information announces that, although their Majesties were in the palace at the time they were unharmed. There was slight damage to the palace. This raid was one of the longest daylight attacks for some tim«, lasting for moi-e than four hours It is difficult as yet to Obtain a clear picture of what occurred as the planes were hidden by low clouds and only occasionally came into view. Fierce bursts of antiaircraft fire and the whistle of falling bombs were "heard in some districts, followed by loud explosions. Thousands of people,were on their way to work, and the passengers on one suburban train were ordered to take shelter to avoid the falling shrapnel. It seems clear that the raiders are dropping bombs over a much wider area than they have covered before. There was an earlier warning which lasted from 7.30 to 8.30, but in this raid also the planes could not be seen. The raids last night did less damage than any of the attacks since Saturday. Although the bombing was not heavy, it was directed against many points, and numbers of high explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped in and around London. Reports so far received state that the number of people killed was very small. The raiders were much less persistent than formerly, and the centre of London escaped practically unscathed. No details of the casualties resulting from this morning's daylight raids are available, but last night's casualties were much smaller than those inflicted by Wednesday night's raid, which consisted of 40 persons killed and 170 injured, while the daylight raid the same day caused 125 deaths and seriously injured 250 people. In the lastmentioned raid the Germans lost 56 heavy bombers, 22 fighter-bombers, and 11 fighters, with a total personnel of approximately 250 trained airmen, compared with the 125 people killed on the ground. A feature of last night's raids was that Midlands and west coast towns received the longest air-raid alarms of the war. The raiders met with fierce opposition from the ground defences, and the damage is reported to be slight. » A convoy off the east coast of Scotland was attacked by bombers, but all the bombs missed their mark and the ships escaped.