AIR RAID EVENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1940, Page 6

AIR RAID EVENTS

PRAYERS IN SHELTER

AS FIREMEN FIGHT FLAMES FACTORY & HOUSES DAMAGED. GALLANT WORK BY HOSPITAL STAFF. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON. August 25. Among the incidents of the night raid in the London area, a septuagenarian Canon ied people in prayer in a dim-lit shelter in a business street, while firemen fought flames nearby. Scores of families, mainly caretakers and shopkeepers, spent the night in shelters, including two women aged ninety and some babies. Outside fourstorey business houses were blackened with shells, with stained glass windows gone and a garage demolished. An incendiary bomb, striking a factory in the London area, penetrated a wing, doing considerable damage, buried itself in the ground and caused a large crater. The flames spread across the road where houses suffered severely.

Members of the A.R.P., nurses and maids of a London hospital, dashed to the roof with stirrup pumps and other appliances when an incendiary bomb struck the building at night. An official said the damage was comparatively slight. Most of the patients were unaware of what was happening. Those who heard the crash behaved splendidly. The fire was under control within half an hour.

The Berlin News Agency claims that the main Rolls Royce factory, producing the merlin engines, was bombed last night. Six of a number of casualties in a Midland town belonged to one family, comprising father, mother, a nineteen-year-old daughter, and a sixteen-year-old son killed and two younger children seriously injured. Both their house and the shelter in which they were taking cover were completely demolished.

The Ramsgate gasworks were so badly damaged that there is no gas in any part of the town. GERMAN REPORT (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.)) BERLIN. August 25. A communique states: “We destroyed 66 British planes yesterday. Twenty of ours are missing. Our Air Force successfully continued the destruction of important enemy military establishments. German units made a surprise attack on the British Isles, destroying buildings, hangars and workshops on aerodromes at the North Weald, Manston, Canterbury and Ramsgate and setting fire to harbour equipment at Portsmouth. We also attacked a store and buildings at Great Yarmouth and troop encampments in the vicinity of Dover. Several violent air combats occurred in which our fighters reported their superiority. : “Numerous night attacks were carried out against Bristol Harbour. We caused fires and explosions at an oil tank centre at Thames Haven and seriously damaged aircraft industries at Derby, . Birmingham, Kingston and Rochester.

“British planes last night flew over north-west and southern Germany and dropped bombs, which fell mostly in open fields and in residential quarters of south-western German cities. Several dwelling houses were hit in one town. Two civilians were killed and two wounded. Another city buiding was destroyed in which eight war prisoners were wounded. “A German U-boat sank a 7,000-ton British destroyer of the Viscount class out of a strongly protected convoy.” AIR MINISTRY REPORT THIRTY-NINE ENEMY PLANES SHOT DOWN. ANOTHER ALARM IN LONDON LAST EVENING. (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, August 25. An Air Ministry communique states: “Reports to 8 p.m. show that 39 enemy planes were shot down today. Eleven R.A.F. fighters are missing, but three of their pilots are safe. “Sirens sounded in London tonight, searchlights swept the sky over the city and the hum of aeroplane engines and the sound of gunfire were heard in the outskirts.”