DEATHS & DAMAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 December 1940, Page 6

DEATHS & DAMAGE

CAUSED BY TIME-BOMB. EXPLOSION IN LONDON. LONDON December 14. A time-bomb exploded today in the London area, killing several, including a police inspector. Two men, two children and one woman were sent to hospital. The bomb wrecked engineering premises, a garage, several houses and shops. A bomb recently wrecked 145 Piccadilly, where Their Majesties lived as the Duke and Duchess of York. Despite the intense bombing to which London’s 14,000 miles of gas mains have been subjected in recent weeks, less than three persons in a thousand are without gas. Twenty-three gasworkers have been killed and 84 injured while working since the attacks started.

HAVOC AT BREMEN AND IN KIEL SHIPYARDS. BORDEAUX DOCKS SUFFER HEAVILY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. December 14. Difficult weather conditions were experienced by British aircraft in an attack on Germany last night. An AirMinistry communique says that aircraft of the Bomber Command made an attack on shipbuilding yards at Kiel and factories and other targets pt Brer men. Docks and aerodromes in Holland were also bombed. Aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked the submarine base at Bordeaux. No British aircraft lost in these operations. Additional details of last night’s raids on Bremen were given this morning by the Air Ministry news service, which says the town was almost entirely hidden by cloud when heavy bombers came ovei’ early at night. They had been detailed to attack the railway and factories and warehouses near the harbour. Both incendiary and high explosive bombs were dropped, and after the attack a glow of strong fires penetrated and lit up the clouds. . At Kiel heavy bombers raided the docks and shipyards. The weather was bad, as at Bremen, but the pilots made certain that many bombs fell on the target area. The attack on the U-boat base at Bordeaux was continued by Coastal Command aircraft in a short, destructive raid with heavy bombs. The first attacking pilot got a hit on the big quayside buildings. His observer saw a succession of brilliant blue flashes along the dock wall lasting 15 seconds. The later stages of the raid were even more spectacular. An explosion near the gates of one dock was followed by a dozen others along the edge of the basin. When the Coastal Command pilos turned for home, the submarine base was lit up by two fires, and overhung by swirling clouds of smoke.

WEEK OF RAIDS WIDESPREAD AND HEAVY ATTACKS. MADE BY BRITISH PLANES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 14. With the dawn of December 13 another week of widespread heavy attacks on Germany and occupied territoyr concluded. Weather conditions for raiding had been extremely unfavourable, but in spite of this more than 4 9 attacks were made on military objectives, apart from a great number of raids on aerodromes. Dusseldorf, which was raided on two successive nights sustained concentrated heavy attacks on the Press Walzwerke blast furnaces and steelworks, and the Mannessman Ruhrenwerke armament works. A feature of these raids was the number of fires started, one of which is described as the “largest ever seen.” Submarine bases at Lorient, Brest and Bordeaux wore heavily bombed, one explosion at Bordeaux being so terrific that it lit the inside of aircraft flying at well over 11.000 feet. Among many aerodrome? attacked, some several times during a night, was le Touquet, where hangars and aircraft were set on fire and the aerodrome machine-gunned from 500 feel. From all operations during the week 12 British aircraft failed to return. Two enemy aircraft wore destroyed in the air by R.A.F. bombers.