MUCH FIRE DAMAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 3

MUCH FIRE DAMAGE

BUT FEW CASUALTIES. ADMITTED BY BERLIN RADIO. (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, January 18. the Berlin radio claims that, as the result of interceptions, only a few planes reached the city when the R.A.F. heavy bombers again raided Berlin last night, but admits that fires caused heavy damage. Three persons, it states, were killed and twenty injured. RAIDS ON LONDON AT LEAST 10 NAZI AIRCRAFT SHOT DOWN. OUT OF TOTAL FORCE OF 50 OR 60. LONDON, January 18. Night fighters went up to meet the two German attacks on London last night. Four of the enemy raiders fell victims to the same Beaufighter pilot. At least ten German planes were shot down altogether, out of a total force of 50 or 60 which came over. London’s powerful ring of anti-air-craft defences, many of them manned by the Home Guard, put up a terrific barrage, one of the most spectacular of the war. FEW ENEMY PLANES PENETRATE THE DEFENCES OF LONDON. ANTI-AIRCRAFT SHELLS CAUSE CASUALTIES. (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, January 18. It is estimated that 25 to 30 planes participated in the two raids on London last night, but few penetrated the outer defences. No important public buildings were hit, and the industrial damage is comparatively slight. Twelve deaths from anti-aircraft shells have so far been reported, in addition to a number of casualties in at least thirteen suburbs. A shell which fell in the Buckingham Palace grounds caused no damage except the destruction of a vegetable plot. There was hardly z moment last night when the sound of aeroplanes was not heard. Over the Channel the noise of R.A.F. planes returning from Europe filled in the interval between the two Luftwaffe raids. NEW RECORD SET BY BRITISH NIGHT FIGHTER. IN SHOOTING DOWN FOUR NAZI BOMBERS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) RUGBY, January 18. Four German bombers, attacking London last night, were shot down by the squadron commander of a Beaufighter squadron. He thus established a new night fighting record. A member of his squadron said the attackers were jumping all over the sky in attempts to evade night fighters and were obviously jittery before even they knew the fighters were there.