LATE NEWS

Southland Times, Issue 24228, 11 September 1940, Page 5

LATE NEWS

GREAT EXPLOSIONS IN LONDON (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received September 11, 2.30 a.m.) NEW YORK,. September 10. The London correspondent of The New York Times says that buildings in the heart of London were shattered by 5001 b bombs early this morning from successive waves of raiders. The exr plosions were so . great that they knocked fleeing civilians off their feet. A world-famous street was littered inches deep with glass and debris. Three churches known to all tourists are threatened by an extensive fire in adjoining offices. Bursting “Archies” brought down three Nazi planes simultaneously and blew a fourth to pieces. The worst sufferers are believed to be the East End and south-west and central London.

Berlin citizens went to shelters for 43 minutes when the alarm sounded early this morning. The authorities diaimed that the raiders did not reach the centre of the city, but high explosives fell on the northern outskirts. There was heavy anti-aircraft fire all over the city. The Washington correspondent of The New York Times says it is reliably stated that Germany has formally demanded the Vichy Government to ship to .Germany 58 per cent, of the food and raw materials in unoccupied France and similarly such products impoi-ted to France in future. It is believed that the new French Ambassador, who will endeavour to obtain food relief for France from the United States, will meet fresh obstacles because of the German demand. The State Department is also concerned about French forces in Martinique remaining in possession of 130 American bombers aboard an aircraft carrier. Diplomatic efforts to repossess them via America failed.

Details of the Allied shipping losses for the week ended midnight on September 1 and for the year have been issued. These reveal that for thq, first year of the war 1,500,000 tons of shipping was lost. During the week 84,000 tons of shipping was sunk, this total being made up of 11 British ships of 56,000 tons, five Allied vessels ' of 15,000 tons and four neutral ships of 13,000 tons. This was slightly higher than the average since the start of the war, but was only one-third of what the Germans claimed to have sunk.

In spite of these losses the British merchant fleet in commission today is greater than at the outbreak of war. Germany and Italy possess much smaller merchant fleets, but in the first year of war the enemy lost 1,250,000 tons of shipping. ENEMY INTERNEES IN AUSTRALIA A large number of German and Italian internees has arrived in Australia from Britain. The internees were guarded on board the ship by British soldiers, some of whom fought at Dunkirk. The soldiers were the first British troops seen in Australia since the outbreak of war and they received a rousing welcome. When asked about the voyage the officer commanding said: “We had our moments.”

AIR-RAID WARNING IN LONDON

An air-raid warning sounded in London this morning and the sound of machine-gun fire was heard. The allclear signal was given within half an hour.

EFFECTIVE RAIDS ON GERMANY An idea of the effectiveness of the British raids over Germany can be gained from an announcement that radio programmes in German will be shortened. This action, it .is stated, is due to military reasons. It was also added that the present time was not the moment to go more precisely into the reasons.

The armament industry in the Ruhr has suffered so severely as a result of the British raids that it has been found necessary to transfer some of the munitions factories to Czechoslovakia.