SAVAGE RAID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 March 1941, Page 6

SAVAGE RAID

MANY BOMBS DROPPED ON LONDON DAMAGE IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS. FIRES EXTINGUISHED SPEEDILY. IBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright ) (Received This Day. 1.10 p.m.) LONDON. March 20. The German air attack on London last night was the most ruthless this year. Although the Air Ministry communique refers to the raid in restrained terms, the newspapers describe it as reaching the proportions of the heaviest blitz of last autumn. It appears certain that though the attack was severe in the London area, it was heaviest in Greater London. The use of heavy explosives characterised the raid, but thousands of incendiary bombs were also scattered on Greater London. Firemen' toiled through the long, dark hours against some fires bigger than any since the big blaze in the city,, but none got out of control. People arriving in London early this morning from outlying districts report pathetic scenes as homeless people stood in the streets gazing at the ruins of their houses. Tired people were to be seen everywhere, pushing barrows and handcarts containing salvaged possessions. No fewer than seven hospitals were bombed, four in the London area and three in the Thames Estuary districts. A nurses' home was also wrecked. Four bombs struck an eight-storey block of flats in the London area, containing 400 people. There were a number of casualties and some victims were trapped in the debris. Residents of one of London's most exclusive streets were rendered homeless when a shower of incendiary bombs burnt out three big houses. Explosive bombs scored a direct hit on a convent school in the Home Counties, but young girls sleeping in a shelter escaped. Five nuns were injured. three seriously. A bomb demolished several houses in a Thames Estuary district. Eight persons wore killed, two are missing, and others injured. Hundreds of incendiary bombs fell on a residential section of Hie same area, llesidcnls exlinguished most <:>!' I hem. Four bombs wrecked 20 houses in another district, but casualties wore light. School children in one district felt happy in the morning after discovering that a bomb blast had scattered school books and examination papers over a wide area. A German communique says: "Several hundred bombers attacked the Royal Victoria. Royal Albert and King George V. Docks in London, and also harbour works in a loop of the Thames, scoring direct hits on factories north and east of the Thames.