WALL OF FIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21216, 12 September 1940, Page 7

WALL OF FIRE

MORE ATTACKS ON LONDON GERMAN RAIDERS DISPERSED BRAVERY OF RESCUERS (United Press Asn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Sept. 12, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 11 The sirens sounded in London four times this afternoon, the last occasion at 8.42 p.m. Soon after the second warning in the mid-afternoon the heavy antiaircraft batteries went into action against a large number of German planes, flying extremely high over London. Big forces tried to penetrate the defences. The thud of bombs was heard and thousands of shells peppered the sky. It was one of the heaviest barrages of the war. Wave after wave of raiders broke against the wall of fire. The anti-aircraft guns suddenly ceased and Spitfires then completed the dispersal of the raiders, after which the “All Clear” was notified. The Londoners’ defence was again victorious.

High explosives last night demolished a five-storey working class apartment house, wrecking 50 flats. Five people were killed, including three men who were forming a stirrup-pump team in a porchway. They had not been intimidated by a bomb which fell a- few minutes earlier. They were crushed under the building. Fous people were killed and several injured when a bomb hit a shelter accommodating 25,000 people.

Bombs fell near three famous London museums. The exhibits were little damaged. The underground railway services are now almost normal on all lines except one, on two sections of which the services are tempoi'arily suspended.