MASSED GERMAN AIR ATTACKS ON BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1940, Page 5

MASSED GERMAN AIR ATTACKS ON BRITAIN

Enemy Uses Hundreds of Aircraft THIRTY-EIGHT RAIDERS SHOT DOWN FIRE STARTED ON NORTH BANK OF THAMES Thirty-eight German planes were brought down in raids on Britain yesterday, a Daventry broadcast states, Fifteen British fighters were lost, but the pilots of seven are safe. Most of the German planes were brought down yesterday morning, when a large force of enemy aircraft crossed the Kent coast and split up in groups, which attempted to launch a series of attacks on several R.A.F. aerodromes. Anti-aircraft gun fire and fighters drove off the raiders. In the afternoon two more raid warnings were given in the London area, one lasting for an hour and the second for half-an-hour. Last .evening, another warning’ was still in progress when the Daventry broadcast was made. In the first raid, which was made by a large German formation, which came up the Thames Estuary, the raiders were met with heavy anti-aircraft gun fire and by fighters. In the second raid five German planes were shot down within ten seconds. It was described by watchers on the ground as the largest raid yet made in this area. Hundreds of German fighters and bombers appeared to have been engaged. In the first raid, the German planes were driven back before they could reach their objectives and very slight damage was done. In the second, a fire was started in an industrial installation on the north bank of the Thames. There were no casualties, nor are there any reports of bombs having been dropped elsewhere. Rescuers Machine-gumied WHILE SAVING ENEMY LIVES An Admiralty communique tells how British naval units which were trying’ to rescue German airmen shot down in the sea were attacked by machine-,gun fire. Three drifters which set out to rescue four German airmen were attacked, but there were no casualties. A motor torpedo-boat which went out to rescue German airmen was attacked by a German plane and four of the crew were slightly wounded by machine-gun fire. This attempt at rescue was abandoned. NEW DISTANCE RECORD Set by British Bombing Planes MANY ATTACKS IN ENEMY AND OCCUPIED TERRITORY British bombers on Thursday night, Daventry states, had a new target in their raids over Germany—an oil plant on the Czechoslovak frontier, which involved a journey of 1353 miles. This was the longest distance yet traversed in raids on Germany. Other objectives attacked in Germany included an oil plant, where large buildings were left burning’ fiercely, targets in forest areas, oil tanks at Kiel, refineries, docks, goods yards and aerodromes in Germany and the Netherlands. Aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked Boulogne Harbour, which was girdled almost entirely with a chain of fires, Calais, and gun positions on the French coast. In Northern Italy the main Fiat buildings at Turin and an aircraft factory nearby were again attacked. From all these operations three British planes did not return.