UNDER HAIL OF NAZI BOMBS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 September 1940, Page 6

UNDER HAIL OF NAZI BOMBS

Inhabited and Other Buildings Demolished PEOPLE IN PLACES BURIED UNDER DEBRIS BUT RESCUE AND WORKING SERVICES CARRIED ON INDOMITABLY (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, September 9. During’ Sunday night’s raids two streets in Central London suffered severe damage from a bomb which fell near a newspaper office situated in this area. A heavy bomb directly hit a block of tenement buildings and demolished forty yards of the centre of the block. It is feared that residents are still buried under the debris. Incendiary and high-explosive bombs falling in quick succession in clusters in another Central London street severely damaged scores of shops, business premises, public houses and cafes. Flames were coming from the wreckage hours after the raid. A road junction was damaged when heavy bombs burst, smashing property and damaging gas mains. Five young women are missing following the bombing of a hospital in Central London and other people were injured. The secretary stated that the two top storeys, mainly nurses’ quarters, were ruined. The windows of one ward were blown in. The demeanour of patients and nurses was splendid. Damage in the Central London area extended over a quarter of a mile radius. Not a single property escaped damage. An institution had all its windows blown in, but there was no panic among its 1,400 inmates, aged from 60 years to 100 years. Fifteen persons were injured.

SHELTERS THAT FAILED

The worst effect in underground shelters was in an office building in Central London, where many people were buried in shelters, of whom several were killed. It is believed that they were trapped through one corner falling in as a result of the terrific force of an explosion, which shattered the walls of neighbouring buildings. Others became a hollow shell. Huge baulks of timber and other supports lay mingled with massive pieces of plaster and bricks in a tangled mass of debris. An outside cellar which was being used as 'a shelter caved in, burying the occupants, who were subsequently extricated. South-West London received a terrible pasting, especially between 2 a.m. and 4.30 a.m. Fires started earlier in the night brought back raiders and bombs fell with scarcely an intermission. One south-western shelter received a direct hit, which was visible at a great distance. There was a scene of devastation at the corner of two London roads, where a huge block of flats was badly damaged. A fire broke out and ambuseveral hours were engaged in taking casualties to hospital. A' cinema adjoining was practically wrecked. FIREMEN DEFY BOMBS The raiders, after starting fires with incendiary bombs in the East London area, tried to prevent fire-fighting by dropping screaming bombs. The firemen carried on coolly. Large areas of the East End were cordoned off this morning owing to the danger of the collapse of buildings and of gas escaping from mains in some areas. Several loud explosions in another area brought the tired wardens back to duty, but it was discovered that the explosions were due to delayed action bombs. Utility undertakings in the Docks area were seriously damaged. Gas was cut off over a large district by two screaming bombs which fell in the North London area. They struck residences, lifting several roofs bodily into the air. ‘ Passengers in a South London train watched a plane dropping bombs, after which the plane collided with a balloon and both fell in flames. Train services are busily attempting to return to normality, but services’, from the dock stations are suspended. I BLOCK OF FLATS SMASHED Over fifty persons were killed when an aerial torpedo demolished an East London block of flats. Rescue parties extricated twenty bodies. . Seven people, including a mother, i father, their daughter and her child,; were killed when a high-explosive' bomb hit a garden shelter in South- i East London. A dock area fire station was burned! cut when a bomb scored a direct hit. ! Notwithstanding fires and damage, ■ business in the docks area went on as usual. The docks today presented a surprisingly normal appearance. About 2,500 people have been trans- i ferred from a fire-damaged East End I district and also 800 persons from an I area bordering on the river. Mobile canteens are meeting immediate food requirements. ‘■Everyone has been splendid, providing food, taking in children and lending clothes,” said a London County Council official. “The council is caring for those rendered homeless.”