BOMBS ON BRISTOL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1940, Page 5

BOMBS ON BRISTOL

SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE NIGHT ATTACK CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS. CASUALTIES NOT HEAVY. LONDON, December 3. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) London was free from raiders last night till early this morning, when planes droplied a few bombs in certain districts but did little damage and caused no casualties. Last night the seventh consecutive night attack was made on Bristol. The bombing was on a fairly heavy scale from shortly after dark till just before midnight. Several fire were started, the Air Ministry announces, and considerable damage was done to houses and business and commercial buildings but the number of casualties was not large. Bombs were also dropped in East Anglia, south Wales, Liverpool and a few other places. There was little damage and only a few casualties. A British fighter was lost yesterday but the pilot was saved.

MANY HOMELESS HAVOC IN SUU I HAMP I ON. ACTIVE MEASURES OF RELIEF. LONDON, December 2. An attack against a town in the south-west of England began early this evening. Flares were dropped, followed by incendiary and high-explosive bombs. Some premises were hit and damage is reported in several other districts. Another south-west town was raided for the seventh night in succession but no bombs/were dropped, the attackers were driven off by fierce ground fire. Meanwhile, in Southampton, which was bombed last night with apparently the same violence as on Saturday night, rescuers are working feverishly in the darkness to remove further evidence of the weekend’s fury. Pitiable crowds of those who were rendered homeless in Southampton all day searched the ruins of their homes for valuables before seeking asylum in other areas in Hampshire. The roads have been crowded with pilgrims. Reorginisation has gone on unceasinguly in a tremendous effort to clear the streets and evacuate the homeless in order to facilitate rescue work if the Germans returned to the fray tonight. Accommodation in outgoing buses for some hours before the blackout was heavily taxed, and it became a case of women and children first. Additional buses were requisitioned and owners of private cars did their utmost to relieve the congestion.

A dense fog and low, unbroken cloud blotted out the Straits of Dover tonight. There was a cold, north-easter-ly wind and a calm sea.

GALLANT EFFORTS UNREMITTING RESCUE WORK IN LIVERPOOL. YOUTH FOUND AFTER FIFTY HOURS. LONDON, December 2. Further details of Liverpool’s worst raid to which it was subjected on Thursday, reveal the courage of victims and the unremitting labours of their rescuers. ' A youth who was still alive under tons of debris was found 50 hours after bombs had demolished workingclass houses. Rescuers began digging within half an hour after the explosion, and the wounded and killed were slowly brought to the surface. The rescue squads continued to work all Friday and Saturday, recovering further bodies. Then, early yesterday, faint moans were heard and a rescuer clambered through a tunnel and found the youth. A doctor crawled to him and administered an anaesthetic and the youth was taken to hospital, but there died. Rescuers are still searching' and clearing away debris.

NAZI ADMISSION INDISCRIMINATE BOMBING OF BRISTOL. . CHURCHES AND HOSPITAL HIT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.17 a.m.) RUGBY, December 3. German reports of last night’s bombing of Bristol make no attempt to disguise the fact that it was indiscriminate, for Berlin messages claim that Bristol has been “Coventrated,” a word coined by the Germans to denote the kind of destruction they claim to have done to Coventry. This, tacit admission of the indiscriminate nature of last night’s bombing of Bristol is fully borne out by early reports from that town. Flares preceded the dropping of incendiary and high explosive bombs, which, as in the case of Coventry and Southampton, caused damage to shops and residential premises. The fires started were efficiently and rapidly attacked by the regular and voluntary civil defence services, whose personnel was assisted by other voluntary workers, who again proved their heroism by braving the fury from the skies throughout the onslaught. Church premises were among those reported damaged by fire. A children’s hospital was bombed and set on fire, but all the patients were successfully evacuated and all have been accounted for. It is officially stated that one of our fighters was lost over Britain yesterday, but the pilot is safe.