PUT TO FLIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1940, Page 5

PUT TO FLIGHT

STRONG ENEMY RAIDING FORCES AFTER FURTHER EFFORTS TO REACH LONDON. SECOND WARNING IN CITY. (Ey Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON. September 2. Sirens sounded in London for the second time today at 2.9 p.m. The all clear was given at 6.2 p.m. Of 26 German machines brought down today, four were accounted for by anti-aircraft fire. Nearly two hundred German bombers and fighters: crossed the south-east coast in waves early this afternoon. The anti-aircraft defences engaged them in a hot action and four of the enemy crashed. Bombers crossed the coast at different points, in formations of 24. 16, 8 and four, guarded by many fighters. At a point where sixty enemy machines crossed the coast, British fighters broke up the formation after anti-aircraft fire, and the Germans soon turned back. Other enemy formations were later broken up by British fighters over a Thames Estuary town. A bomb fell in a school playground. London’s second warning was due to large formations of enemy planes attempting to reach the Metropolitan area, in which hundreds of watchers saw a great anti-aircraft barrage put up against 25 bombers. British fighters later streaked across the sky and engaged the force comprising a hundred bombers and fighters. The enemy ranks immediately became a mass of whirling and diving planes. Within a few- minutes, the raiders headed away from London, with Spitfires and Hurricanes hotly pursuing them.