LIGHTS IN EIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1941, Page 5

LIGHTS IN EIRE

USED BY NAZI RAIDERS AS GUIDE. IN REACHING ULSTER TARGETS. (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, April 16. A communique issued in Belfast states: “Belfast bore the brunt of indiscriminate enemy air attacks . on Northern Ireland last night. High explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped at random over the city. Many fell in residential and shopping areas, causing numerous casualties, many of them fatal. Other bombs damaged industrial and commercial premises.” Many of the enemy aircraft, in their raids against Northern Ireland, passed over Dublin and other neutral territory in Eire and used the city lights as a guide to Ulster targets. Fire brigades from other towns were sent to Belfast to assist in fire-fighting. The “Evening Standard’s” Belfast correspondent says: “There is strong feeling here about those lights in Eire. A protest may be sent to the Eire Government asking it to speed up preparations for a bla/ckout of Dublin.” A feature of the reaction in Ulster to the raids is a rush on the recruiting offices to join the Army, Navy and R.A.F.

A German communique says: “Strong formations attacked Belfast, scoring direct hits on harbour and armament works and causing extensive fires at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.”