ATTACKS ON CENTRAL LONDON

Southland Times, Issue 24241, 26 September 1940, Page 7

ATTACKS ON CENTRAL LONDON

Bombers concentrated on central London early today. A number of people were killed and injured when what is believed to have been an aerial torpedo landed outside a restaurant, demolishing the hotel opposite and also shattering a number of buildings in the neighbourhood. A terrific blast was felt 400 yards away. The raiders later dropped incendiary bombs on and' near a famous Wren church and then, guided by the light, dropped several high-explosive bombs. Sixteen incendiary bombs fell on a north London hospital without causing any casualties. Several fires were quickly put out and little damage was done. The raiders bombed Welsh towns over a wide area.

ATTACKS ACROSS COAST During the morning two enemy formations consisting of bombers escorted by a large number of fighters, made attacks across the Kent coast and in the area of the Thames estuary. Neither force penetrated London. Some bombs were dropped on Thames-side towns and a number of districts in East Kent. Damage was caused to houses and buildings. The number of casualties was Small. Early in the afternoon an enemy attack was made on the Southampton area. Some buildings were damaged and a number of casualties was caused. Enemy activity was not on a large scale, but in attacks by single aircraft bombs were dropped on a number of districts including Brighton. Damage was caused to houses and business premises. A number of casualties was reported. Of four of our fighters lost the pilots of

two are safe. It is now established that two enemy bombers were shot down by anti-aircraft guns on Monday night.

Dense mist shrouded the Straits of Dover tonight. The sea was calm and there was a cloudless sky and a light north-westerly wind. Searchlights operated in full force tonight when the raiders arrived over Central London. Guns fired heavily against a single raider. Another raider dropped an orange flare, after which a high-explosive bomb crashed with a terrific roar in central London. Bombs fell early in north, south-east and south-west of London. The banks decided to remain open during the air raids. A bomb falling on a hospital in the south-east was the twenty-second on or near the building -since the blitzkrieg began. Twenty-one Dorniers appeared over the Kent coast in a second daylight mass attack on London. Waves of Messerschmitts circled around the bombers which encountered fierce antiaircraft fire and were driven back after ten minutes.

Choked, blinded, endangered by fating earth and concrete, Maurice Vent, a member of the Air Raid Precautions Corps, flung himself down an escape shaft of an East London shelter in an attempt to save those trapped there. He handed 14 through the shaft to safety. A bomb ploughed a 10 foot crater in the earth beside the shelter, throwing down a section of wall on the families sleeping under it. Several were killed, including a father, a mother and three children.