SCATTERED ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 February 1941, Page 5

SCATTERED ATTACKS

MADE BY GERMAN PLANES ON BRITAIN

ENEMY BOMBER SHOT DOWN

DURING ATTACK ON CONVOY. ESCORTING TRAWLER SUNK. German air attacks on Britain on Wednesday night were small and scattered. the 8.8. C. states. Bombs were dropped in one or two areas, including London. Damage was slight and the number of casualties small. Soldiers and sailors assisted fire watchers to put out fire bombs dropped on a south-east town. All the fires were put out in half an hour. Enemy aircraft were reported in the vicinity of an East Midlands town yesterday afternoon. An enemy bomber engaged in attacking a British convoy yesterday was shot down by a naval trawler. The Admiralty states that no vessel of the convoy was lost or damaged, but announces with regret that one of the escorting trawlers was sunk.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander stated that from the beginning of the war to February 4, defensively armed merchantmen! had destroyed 26 enemy aircraft and probably 15 others, while 70 had been damaged. ADMIRALTY REPORT (Received This Day. 10 a.mJ RUGBY, February 6. An Admiralty communique states: An enemy dive-bomber was shot down by H.M. trawler Philomena, when an enemy aircraft attacked one of our convoys off the south-east coast yesterday. No ship of the convoy was lost or damaged, but the Admiralty announce that the trawler Tournaline. one of the escorting vessels, was sunk. BRITISH CHILDREN HELPING TO EXTINGUISH BOMBS. SOME DETAILS OR LATEST RAIDS. LONDON, February 6. British children are fast becoming incendiary bomb conscious. Immediately incendiaries are dropped they rush out into the streets to help ex-1 tinguish them. A street in a town on; the Thames Estuary last night was i littered with incendiaries and children, ■ some of them in their dressing-gowns. I rushed out to help with bags of sand. When a low-flying raider bombed a town on the east coast during the night one bomb penetrated the roof of a cinema and exploded in the hall. Four members of the staff who were nearby escaped with a shaking. A warden rescued six people from an underground shelter when a bomb made a direct hit on the entrance. Seventy incendiaries fell in a Home Counties district and all were extinguished except one. which set fire to I a house.

MINOR RAIDS AIR MINISTRY REPORT. SEVEN FIGHTERS LOST ON WEDNESDAY. (British OfTicial Wireless.) (Received This Day. 9.28 a.m.) RUGBY. February 6. An .Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security communique states: "During the early part of the night bombs were dropped by enemy aircraft in east and south-east England and in the London area. The raids were on a small scale. Damage was done in one or two' places but. as a whole, it was not heavy. The number of casualties reported is small. "Reports of yesterday’s R.A.F. operations show that two fighters were lost, with their pilots, making a total of seven lost during the day.”