LATEST WAR NEWS

Serial Waves, Volume 1, Issue 4, 6 September 1940, Page 3

LATEST WAR NEWS

The Admiralty announces : The destroyers "Ivanhoe" ”Esk” have been sunk by enemy torpedoes or mines • f The House of Commons,which this afternoon heard comments from the Prime Minister, for the first time in its history was in session while air raid alarms were sounding in London . The speaker announced that if a. raid became imminent members would go down stairs, and a little later, for a few minutes, the sitting was suspended. The all clear -was sounded towards the conclusion of Mr# Churchill’s speech. After welcoming the conclusion of the agreement between H M Government and the Government of the United States relating to the release of fifty destroyers,Mr Churchill turned to the air activity of the last two months • Though august, he said, has been a real fighting month, neither side has put out its real strength® The Germans have made a very substantial and important effort to gain mastery and they have certainly put forth a larger proportion of their total air strength than wo .have found it necessary up to the present to employ against them # Their attempts to dominate the RAP and our A A defences by daily attacks have proved very costly to them » Broad figures of three to one in machines and of six to one in pilots and crews, of which we are assured, do not by .any moans represent the total injury inflicted upon the enemy ® We must be prepared for heavier fighting in this month of September as the need of the enemy to obtain .a decision is very great, and if he has the numbers we have hithertoi credited him. he should be able to magnify and multiply his attacks during Sept- ' Firm confidence was expressed by the R A F in their ability to withstand a largely increased scale of attack # "So far as an air attack is concerned," said Mr Churchill, we have found it to be up to the present,far less severe than what we had prepared ourselves to endure, and what we are still ready to endure® And he instanced the fact that over 15,000 beds had stood empty in Far Hospitals for over a year® Concluding, the Prime Minister said, no ‘ one must suppose the danger of military invasion is past, but the added, I shall not be giving away any military secret if I say we are very much better off than we were a few months ago t and if the problem of invading Britain was a difficult one in August it has become a far more difficult and larger problem in September ® Thilo all these preparations for Home Defence have been going forward on a gigantic scale we have not hesitated to send a continous stream of convoys with reinforcements to the middle east in particular, a few days ago wo found it possible to almost double the effective strength of • our fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean by sending out some of our most powerful vessels to reinforce the flag of Sir Andrew Cunningham,Admiral in the Eastern Mediterranean# This movement plainly was visible to the Italians and yet was not molested by them® We have every intention of maintaining our positions there with our utmost strength and of increasing our sea power, and control which follows from sea power, throughout the Mediterranean, not only in the Eastern Basin but in the Western Basin .In this way both at home and abroad,we shall persevers along our course, however the winds may blow •

A British war communique issued at GHQ Cairo today: At Capuzzo during the night one of our patrols killed three enemy without sustaining any casualties to themselves# • Further contingents of Poles and Czechs have arrived in Palestine # Nothing to report from Kenya or the Sudan „ The total civilian casualties due to air raids on the United Kingdom during August were : - Killed - 627 men, 335 women, 113 children. Seriously injured - 711 men, 448 women, 102 children # ' ‘ WELLINGTON : The Pt Hon P Fraser warned a conference of Employers, -Farmers and Bankers that a. decrease in living standards might he necessary in N Z 0 STOCKHOLM : The Newspaper "Afterblat" reports that about 4000 Ceman troops on a transport to Norway had been drowned in a torpedo attack.in the Kattegat by a British submarine that sent the vessel to the bottom • LONDON : London had three air raid alarms on Wednesday .and another before Midnight® Heavy A/A fire -was heard# 45 German planes were shot down and the R A F lost 11 e BOSTON : The first three of the US A Destroyers left Boston for Canada « LISBON : Infomed sources say the British ship Brocks, was attacked by a' sub o but shattered the periscope by a volley from her gun and so escaped <> NEW YORK : Rome radio stations fell suddenly silent Wednesday . This usually means that raiding planes arc over their target #