HOT RECEPTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 March 1941, Page 5

HOT RECEPTION

GIVEN TO NIGHT RAIDERS ON LONDON FIERCEST ATTACK FOR SOME WEEKS. AT LEAST ONE NAZI PLANE BROUGHT DOWN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 20. Shortly after dusk last night the first contingent of what proved lo be an unceasing procession of night raiders approached London. The anti-aircraft guns immediately gave a hot reception to the visitors, who dropped clusters of red flares, followed by incendiary bombs, most of which were promptly put out. After several fiery hours the German onslaught, which was the fiercest against the capital for weeks, waned into, spasmodic activity. The cheering news was disclosed after midnight that anti-aircraft guns had destroyed at least one raider over the capital. A feature of London’s civil defence was the speed with which fires were extinguished. Relays of raiders showered thousands of incendiaries over a large area, including residential and business districts, also working-class streets. In one district 50 incendiaries were burning in a road simultaneously. A bus pulled up, and the driver and passengers got out and dealt with them. In another district a well-known inn was severely damaged by the blast of a high explosive, which wrecked an adjoining house. A bomb fell on an animal hospital, but all the inmates, cats, dogs and monkeys, were removed uninjured. In a third district many houses were demolished. From them 20 people were extracted, and it is feared many others are still buried. High explosives wrecked a maternity ward in a hospital in the London area, which was being used as a temporary first-aid post. A number of men nurses were slightly injured. No patients were injured because of their being in another part of the hospital.

A total of 1160 of 1200 patients in another hospital were safely evacuated when a shower of bombs severaly damaged a large portion of the building, resulting in only a few minor injury cases.

A man walking with a dog was severely injured. The dog barked till help came, lay down with his master, and accompanied him in the ambulance to hospital.

MANY DEATHS PARTS OF LONDON SUFFER SEVERELY. (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, March 20. Parts of London last night were subjected to the worst raid of the war. Many dead were recovered from one shelter. A direct hit demolished a famous London hostelry, only the walls of which remain standing. A police station suffered a direct hit, a constable and also the wife and daughter of an inspector being killed. DETAILS OF DAMAGE CHURCHES AND HOSPITALS HIT. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, March 20. Nazi bombers carried out their heaviest blitz of the year on the London area. At least five hospitals were hit. Casualties among the patients were few. Churches were destroyed or damaged by bombs, and a fire and police station and convent were struck. A famous London inn was wrecked by a bomb which fell outside. Customers were injured, mostly by glass. A row of houses in one street was demolished by a large bomb. Many shops were damaged in different parts of the area.