VAST HAVOC

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1940, Page 7

VAST HAVOC

LONDON SCENES ! TERRIBLE HAMMERING ' EAST END SUFFERS MOST ! ] London, Sept. 11. Fires started in the night's raids on London were still burning and a smoke pall hung overhead as Londoners began another day's work to-day. The City and East End again received a terrible hammering. Bombs fell almost without intermission throughout the hours of darkness. Auxiliary and regular firemen were again the heroes of the night, wrestling with outbreaks under a constant threat of further bombs. Four high explosives followed by incendiaries burst in a warehouse and business area in Central London, causing fires. Some buildings were seriously damaged. Firemen working in a street where the blaze was most intense clamI r ered to the upper floor of a slightly I burning building in order to direct their hoses on premises more seriously threatened. A flaming "breadbasket" fell outside a shop. 3urning oil spread along the street. Members of the Auxiliary Fire Service extinguished the flames while bombs were falling in adjoining streets in which houses were demolished. An • aerial torpedo completed the destruction of blocks of shops in an area where smaller bombs caused damage the previous night. School Wrecked. It is feared that many men, women and children evacuated from their homes after Saturday's raids were killed when an Last End school was wrecked. The school was used as a refuge for about 500 hometess. Doctors and nurses worked with torches treating the survivors rescued from under tons of debris. Masonry and girders crumbled down on refugees who were sheltering on the ground floor. Rescuers found two babies, nine and six months old respectively, alive under the ruins. Dozens of streets in thls area presented a scene of mass wreckage. Many people femerging from Anderson shelters found their homes demolished. The raiders attacked one area with | the utmost determlnation. Here were j concentrated scores of bombs ln a small space. Several delayed action bombs in ! the same district went off during the night, damaging several houses. There were some casuaities when a oomb hit a hospital in a central district. A Roman Catholic church was demolished 1 in Central London. Valuable music manuscripts and an-j tique furniture were destroyed when the home of a well-known woman pianist was damaged. Bomb Hits Train. Dropping from the clouds despite fierce j anti-aircraft fire ,a Pornier unloaded a j bomb cargo against a train en route to the coast from London. A bomb fell i th rough the roof of an empty/ carriage, | causing a iire which was quickly extin- j guished. j High explosives last night demolished a five-storey working-class apartment house, wrecking 50 flats. Five people were killed, including thret mcn forming a stirrup pump team, in a porchway. They were not intimidated by a bomb which fell a few minutes earlier; they were crushed under the build'ng. Four people were killed and several injured when a bomb hit a shelter accommodatlng 25,000 people. Bombs fell near three famous London museums. The exhibits were little damaged. The underground ratlway services are now almost normal on all lines. except one or two sections where the services are temporarily suspended. In Tuesda.v night's enemy activity over London, althougb tjiuch damage was done

to private properties, it was less than the previous night and the casuaities were very much less severe. according to the Ministry of HOme Security. Incendiary bombs caused many fires, but only one major fire was caused and all were soon brought under control. Full reports of the casuaities are not yet available, mt 18 are known to have been killed and 280 Injured in the London area Several casuaities on Monday night make the total now reporled to be in the neighbourhood of 400 killed and 1400 injured. The majority of the fatalities oceurred when an elementary school in the East End of London, affording temporary shelter to familics whose homes were destroyed. was hit and collapsed.