NIGHT RAID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1940, Page 5

NIGHT RAID

ON WEST OF ENGLAND TOWN BOMBING KEPT GOING FOR HOURS. ENEMY LOSSES OF PLANES. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, November 25. Enemy air attacks last night were directed mainly at a town in the west cf England. They began soon after dark and continued till shortly before midnight. Explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped. Houses and commercial buildings were damaged, and some persons- were killed and injured. Bombs were also • dropped during the early part of the night in London and the Home Counties. Two enemy aircraft were shot down during the night (a later report raises the number to three), and three —two bombers and one Messerschmitt —in daylight raids yesterday. NUMBER OF CASUALTIES EXAMPLES OF “MILITARY OBJECTIVES.” LONDON, November 25. In last night’s attack on a west England town the raiders at first came over singly and bombed the town for several hours, causing casualties, some of them fatal. Later they came over in waves, and the damage done was considerable, including hits on a home for aged persons, a theatre, two churches, and a cinema and business premises. A lone raider exploded in mid-air and crashed into the sea near Falmouth and another went down in flames into the sea near the Isle of Wight. Raiders also hit a London A.R.P. centre, killing two persons and injuring others. Rescuers formed a human chain to extricate buried people from a club building. PILOT’S ESCAPE UNDISMAYED IN BURNING PLANE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.2 a.m.) RUGBY, November 25. A story is told of a Spitfire pilot, who baled out over the Sussex coast, after his machine had been hit by cannon fire. The pilot had been fighting off Dover and was hit after breaking away from a second combat. Flames came from the exhaust and the heat from the engine could be felt in the cockpit. “I gave the engine full throttle and

climbed to 2000 feet, rolled the aircraft over on its back and baled out,” said the pilot. A few seconds afterwards the aircraft blew up.