MET AND BROKEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1940, Page 5

MET AND BROKEN

FURTHER ENEMY AIR RAIDS ON BRITAIN Deliberate Attacks on Seaside Towns HOUSES DAMAGED BUT CASUALTIES FEW WIDESPREAD OPERATIONS BY R.A.F. BOMBERS At least eleven German planes were shot down yesterday in raids over Britain, a 8.8. C. broadcast reports. Large forces of German planes crossed the Kent and Sussex coasts yesterday morning, but the formations were broken up by British fighters. Enemy aircraft made a deliberate attack on several seaside towns in Sussex, especially Eastbourne. Houses were damaged but the casualties were small. Early yesterday afternoon antiaircraft guns opened fire on a single enemy plane, which flew away without dropping any bombs. Last evening more German planes crossed the Kent coast but did not penetrate far inland. Eleven British fighters were lost, but the pilots of seven are safe. Aluminium works north-east of Dresden were attacked by the R.A.F. on Sunday night and fires broke out. All the British machines returned safely from widespread operations in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. Strong forces of bombers, also attacked docks, harbours and shipping in a number of enemy occupied ports.

“BOMB SALES”

NEW FEATURE IN OXFORD STREET. LONDON, September 23. "While their “spotter” watched for raiders, hundreds of shop girls in Oxford Street spent Saturday and yesterday clearing bomb wreckage and arranging improvised counters for the opening of the shops today. “Bomb sales” will be a feature in Oxford Street this autumn. TAKING COVER COCKNEY COMMON SENSE & HUMOUR. SERIOUSLY MISINTERPRETED BY NAZIS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 22. Londoners faced their sixteenth successive night raid when German bombers appeared over the capital tonight. A German broadcast, gloating that “Londoners are allowed to spend the night in the underground stations” and that “it is now learned that during the last 48 hours Londoners have had to spend 15 in the air-raid shelters,” shows an utter lack of understanding of- the spirit in which such “cover” is taken. The adaptation of Londoners to the new night life necessitated by the threat of murder from the sky is glowingly praised by neutral correspondents, one of whom suggests that the Germans are far from the mark if they are mistaking the Cockney common sense for panic fear. The attitude of Londoners is summed up by a catch phrase that is continually heard with comic emphasis when the sirens sound: “It's that man again!” USE OF GAS MASKS ENJOINED ON PEOPLE. IN EVENT OF ENEMY INVASION. LONDON, September 23. A heavy rainstorm has descended on the Straits of Dover, and a strong south-westerly wind has kept the seas comfortably high for those on this side of the English Channel. The civil defence North Regional Commissioner has warned the public to resume carrying gas masks, saying.' that if an invasion comes from the, sea gas will most probably be used. t “REVENGE RAIDS” MORE CLAIMS BY NAZIS. LONDON, September 22.

A German communique states: “The revenge raids on Britain were continued, with London again the chief objective. Many military objectives were bombed. Big fires were started in the vicinity of the Royal Albert Docks and the West India Docks, and we bombed various aerodromes, military camps and harbours on the east and south coasts. '

“The enemy again failed to penetrate German territory except for a few bombs which were dropped on the French and Belgian coasts. “A U-boat sank eight British merchantmen totalling 61,300 tons and other U-boats sank eight more, totalling 35,000 tons.”

ATTACK ON BERLIN GUNS FURIOUSLY IN ACTION. ALARM LASTS FOR TWO HOURS LONDON, September 23. Bombers of the Royal Air Force again last night attacked military objectives in France and Belgium and “an important target in Germany.” No other details have yet been issued officially, but agency reports from Berlin state that the German capital had an air raid alarm lasting two hours, having their first raid for a week.

A Nazi spokesman said three squadrons of British planes flew over Germany from the direction of the Netherlands. Two flew west and north respectively and the third in'the-direc-tion of Berlin.

Flares were dropped on the outskirts of the capital, though it was claimed no bombs were dropped. Later it was stated in Berlin that “the enemy did not cause great damage." ..Anti-air-craft guns in the heart of the city fired furiously.

NIGHT ATTACKS ‘

OF LITTLE MILITARY EFFECT r NAZI TERROR WEAPON BLUNTED. BRITISH PEOPLE FIRMLY RESOLVED. (British Official Wireless.) . RUGBY, September 22. The Nazi method of carrying out aerial bombardments over a wide area by single machines or small formations undoubtedly imposes a severe strain on the civil population and necessarily causes damage, but by its very nature the military gains are small. In a large area such as London, which has grown up gradually and absorbed what once were satellite towns and villages, “military targets” (in the broadest sense of the term) are in- ■ evitably scattered throughout the residential and commercial areas. Conse- ; quently, of the number of bombs in- ' discriminately dropped some are bound to land on such places as gasworks and factories as well as hospitals and railway stations, though the greatest number have burst on what forms the high- | est proportion of the target’s surfaceroads and streets. The latter, of course cause damage in varying degree to the surrounding buildings, the vast majority of which when hit sustain damage which from a military point of view is not commensurate with the cost incurred in hitting it. It is probably for this reason that the German High Command —knowing that its pilots are unlikely to reach that degree of individual efficiency and courage which distinguishes the Royal Air Force pilots and crews and enables them to deliver one after another successful attacks on genuine military objectives—has regarded and probably still regards its night air operations as military ineffective. The German technique is a crushing blow delivered by mass formations, and the German High Command has shown by its two efforts that it would if it could apply this method to mass daylight attacks. Both of these endeavours, however, have been signally defeated by the R.A.F., and while the Luftwaffe chiefs are thinking out a third set of daylight mass tactics the night bombing sepms to be regarded as a cheap (so far as their losses are concerned) and harassing alternative. The attack on civilian morale is, ; however, a well-tried weapon in the ’ political armoury of the Nazi. Hitherto disruption from within has been found to be sufficiently effective, specially if accompanied by some measure of physical brutality, the latter being increased proportionately to the inability of the “ideological” subversion to bring about the requisite state of internal confusion. In applying their methods to Britain, the Nazis have found but poor soil for their seeds of discord; the British people, whatever may be their individual political views, are for practical purposes unanimous in their hearty dislike of Nazi doctrines and their determination to resist them, and their ideals of freedom are too deeply j rooted. Consequently the weapon by physical ] fear is employed in endeavours to ; break down the resistance by nervous . exhaustion. Just as the mass air at- j tacks failed and the endeavour to ] produce internal discord met with no j success, so does it appear that the ; weapon of terror is not only blunting ; its own edge, but is itself forging a i counter-weapon which will utterly destroy and root out from the world for ever the malignant growth of Nazi practice. FATALITIES IN LONDON REFUGEES KILLED IN BLOCK OF FLATS. (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) LONDON, September 23. " Seven refugees of different nation- ( alities were killed and a number injured when a high-explosive bomb directly hit a large block of West End I flats. They had been sheltering in a I basement for only twenty minutes, fol- 1 lowing upon the destruction of their ( own home, a hundred yards away by a c time bomb. c Four more German planes were shot t down. t _ r I SUNDAY’S AIR LOSSES i . 3 (British Official Wireless.) I (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) c RUGBY, September 23. In a communique on today's air attacks on Britain the Air Ministry states that 11 enemy aircraft are known to s have been destroyed. 1 Eleven R.A.F. fighters were lost but t the pilots of seven are safe. "i