EXTENDS OVER QUARTER-MILE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21214, 10 September 1940, Page 5

EXTENDS OVER QUARTER-MILE

TERRIFIC EXPLOSIONS - BUILDINGS WRECKED HOSPITAL AND OLD PEOPLE'S HOME BOMBED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Sept. 10, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 9 Further details of Sunday night’s raids show that two streets in Central London suffered severe damage. A heavy bomb directly hit a block of tenement buildings and demolished forty yards of the centre of the block. It is feared residents are still buried under the debris. Incendiaries and high explosives, falling in quick succession in clusters in another Central London street, severely damaged scores of shops, business premises, public-houses and cafes. Flames were coming from the wreckage hours after the raid. A road junction was damaged when heavy bombs burst, smashing property and damaging gas mains. Five young women are missing following the bombing of a hospital in Central London, and other people were injured. The secretary stated that the two top storeys, mainly the nurses’ quarters, were ruined. The windows of one ward were blown in. The patients and nurses behaved splendidly. The damage in the Central London area extended over a quarter of a mile radius. Not a single property escaped damage. An institution had all its windows blown in, but there was no panic am6ng the 1400 inmates, aged from 60 to 100 years. Fifteen people were injured. The worst effect in underground shelters was an office building in Central London, where many people were buried, of whom several were killed. It is believed they were trapped through one corner falling in as a result of the terrific force of the explosion, which shattered the walls of neighbouring buildings. Other buildings became a hollow shell. Hyge baulks of timber and other supports lay mingled with massive pieces of plaster and bricks in a tangled mass of debris.

Scenes of Devastation An outside cellar that was being ; used as a shelter caved in, burying the occupants, who were extricated later. South-west London received a terrible pasting, specially between 2 a.m. and 4.30 a.m. Fires started earlier in the night brought back the raiders, and bombs fell with scarcely an intermission. One south-western shelter received a direct hit, which was visible for a great distance. There was a scene of devastation ' at the comer of two London roads, where a huge block of flats was ! badly damaged. A fire broke out, and j for several hours ambulances were ; engaged in taking casualties to the j hospital. A cinema adjoining was practical- ! ly wrecked. The raiders after starting fires with incendiary bombs in the East London area, tried to prevent fire-fighting by dropping screaming bombs. The firemen carried on coolly. Large areas in the East End were cordoned off this morning owing to the danger of the collapse of buildings. Gas is escaping from the mains in some areas. Several loud explosions in another area brought tired wardens back to duty, but they discovered that the explosions were due to delayedaction bombs. Utility undertakings and docks in the area were damaged seriously. The gas was cut off over a large district. Damage by Screaming Bombs Two screaming bombs which fell in the North London area struck residences, lifting several roofs bodily into the air. Passengers on a South London train watched a plane dropping bombs, after which the plane collided with a balloon and both fell in flames. The train services are attempting to return to normality, but the services from the dock stations have been suspended. 50 Killed by Aerial Torpedo Over fifty people were killed when an aerial torpedo demolished an-East London block of flats. Rescue parties extricated twenty bodies. Seven people, including a mother, father, their daughter and her child, were kilted when a high explosive bomb hit a garden shelter in South-east London. In a dock area a fire station was burned out when a bomb scored a direct hit. Notwithstanding the fires and damage business in the docks area went on as usual and the docks today presented a surprisingly normal appearance. About 2500 people were transferred from a fire-damaged East End district, also 800 from an area bordering the river. Mobile canteens are meeting immediate food requirements. “Everyone has been splendid, providing food, taking in children, and lending clothes,” said a London County Council official. “The council is caring for those rendered homelesi/’ Baby Born in Shelter After having given birth to a daughter in an air raid shelter three weeks ago, a mother with her baby has remained there ever since. They share the shelter with the father and the other children during alarms.

150 Raiders Participate , It is authoritatively estimated that ' at least 150 enemy machines, mostly J operating singly, were engaged in last night’s raid. Spitfires are believed to have shot down three Messerschmitts over south-east London this evening, when big bombers, escorted by fighters, attacked the metropolis. Some bombed the inner London ; area. The Air Ministry announced that | the casualties for last night are not ■ assessable, but are not expected to ! exceed those of Saturday. Hospital and Museums Damaged ! Raiders last night bombed a hos- ! pital in the London area, which was j unoccupied, being reserved for raid casualties. They reduced a threestory wing to rubble. Another wing was damaged. A bomb striking a museum caused a fire, which burned off the roof o! the east wing. Another bomb demolished a house immediately opposite, and a third damaged another house nearby. Another museum in the London area was also damaged. 103 Shot Down in Day The first air raid warning in the [London area today sounded at 5.10 p.m. and the “All Clear” was given I an hour and a-quarter later. | Some bombs were dropped, and the ! enemy raiders, which appeared to be I few in number, were heavily enI gaged by anti-aircraft gunfire and I fighters. ! So far no official information is ! available regarding the damage done |or the numbers of enemv aircraft j destroyed, but agency reports that a I second warning was sounded at • 8.45 p.m. I A Ministry of Home Security com- | munique at 9.15 p.m. states: Now it : is known that during last night three j enemy aircraft were shot down by j our anti-aircraft guns, making a j total of eleven enemy aircraft in all destroyec yesterday. Fuller reports show that in Saturday’s actions 28 enemy aircraft in all were destroyed by anti-aircraft gunfire and 75 by fighters, making a total of 103 destroyed that day. Preliminary reports of this evening’s raid show that 26 enemy aircraft were destroyed. 24 by fighters and two by anti-aircraft fire. Thir- | our fighters are missing but three pilots are safe. Danger From Flying Glass Apart from a direct hit, most of j the danger in air raids is from flying glass, said a British Broadcasting Corporation observer. Mr Robin Duff. He added that London’s streets were littered with broken glass this morning. But most people escaped injury in this way by taking to shelters, the value of which was now fully recognised. ( “It took us 20 years of saving and | scraping to make our homeland this is all we have to show for it,” one East End resident said to an American correspondent. Mr Warren Irvine. This Londoner and his wife were gathering up a few clothes from their j wrecked home and were putting them linto a suitcase. In another street, said Mr Irvine i in a broadcast, two bombs, which fell j at either end, completely demolished a row of workers’ houses.

Eight men were missing after the sinking of the trawler Salacon by a mine in the North Sea.