NAZI SHELLING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1940, Page 5

NAZI SHELLING

BOMBARDMENT OF DOVER AREA

FIERCE COUNTER-ATTACKS BY AIR.

BLAZE OF BATTLE ACROSS CHANNEL.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, August 22. The shelling of the Dover area caused fairly widespread damage, but remarkably few casualties considering the heaviness of the bombardment.

Gunnery experts state that longrange guns are inefficient without effective plane-spotting and the pilot must have full opportunity to follow the course of the shells, which was impossible tonight because of the hot R.A.F. counter-attack. The chief value of the long-range guns is for propaganda purposes. The Germans cannot hope to hide the guns from aerial photographers, resulting in heavy British bombing.

A Bright communique states: “Last evening enemy artillery on the French coast opened fire on the Dover area, causing some damage to buildings and a number of casualties.”

Heavy gunfire on the French coast shook towns on the English side of the Channel, and numerous flares and tracer shells lit up the sky, while red glows on the waterline illuminated the French coastline as the British planes apparently made an intensive bombing attack at. or near Calais and endeavoured to locate and destroy the batteries which had attacked the convoy. The Germans began shelling the English coast shortly after dusk. A terrific explosion shook the Channel coast at 9 p.m. Gun-flashes were stabbing the darkness and shells were heard screaming in the sky. A salvo of three shells opened the bombardment.

German anti-aircraft guns flashed from Calais to Boulogne, indicating that strong formations of British planes were attacking. The British raid temporarily silenced the long-range guns, which an hour later again roared into action, sending five shells across the Channel. R.A.F. bombers thereupon delivered a second and fiercer attack. A later agency message from the south-east states that another part of Kent was also shelled. A church was slightly damaged. The shelling of Dover lasted for an hour. This is the first systematic shelling of its type by land guns in the war. Observers say that there was a lapse of minutes between the flash of the guns and the explosion of the shells, which were fired from 21 miles distant. About a dozen shells landed.

DOVER SHELLING FOUR PEOPLE SENT TO HOSPITAL. DAMAGE REMARKABLY SLIGHT. (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, August 23. The Dover shelling last night resulted in four people being sent to hospital. The latest assessment of the damage confirms that it was remarkably slight. Shrapnel badly damaged six small nouses facing the churchyard of the church in which the shell

exploded. Most of the houses had previously been evacuated. A delayed action bomb exploded in a London suburb this afternoon but the neighbourhood had already been evacuated.