DAYLIGHT RAIDS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 74, 8 January 1941, Page 5

DAYLIGHT RAIDS

THE GREATEST FOR MONTHS.

FATALITIES IN BRITAIN.

LONDON AND THE PROVINCES

(United Press Association—Copyright,) ■ (Received This Day, 1.2-5 p.m.) LONDON, January 7.

Enemy daylight activity over Britain to-day was greater than for several months. London had the longest day alert since October 25. Guns on the Thames Estuary, also from the heart of the capital, spoke at intervals. A number of incendiaries were quickly extinguished. Several persons were killed when a bom\» hit a church, already cabled. Bombs demolished a furniture shop. A motor showroom and a bank were struck, people being . trapped under the latter. Casualties were caused at two other points in London. ltaiders also attacked places in the provinces. A number of bombs fell in a Midlands town this afternoon, demolishing a number of houses and causing casualties, some of which were fatal.

Four persons were killed and four seriously injured when a stick of highexplosive bombs fell in a Home Counties district. One bomb fell on a doctor’s house, killing the doctor, his wife and daughter and a boy visitor.. The doctor’s other two children'and another visitor were seriously injured. A burst of machine-gun fire, lasting over three minutes, sent school children and shoppers scurrying to a shelter in an East Anglian town. Another raider sprayed the rooftops of a south-east inland town.

A third raider machine-guipied a south-east coast town and then dropped bombs.

The enemy was* also reported over Liverpool this afternoon, and over a West Midlands town this evening. Six million books were destroyed in and around Paternoster Row in the incendiary bombing raid on December 29, when 37 publishers’ premises were damaged or burnt out. Many contracts, copyrights and royalty statements were destroyed, but the loss of manuscripts was not serious.

RAID EARLY IN EVENING GUNS ON THAMES ESTUARY

(Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, January 7

For the second night no alert was sounded in London up to a late hour in the evening . Enemy planes were engaged by British fighters over the south-east of England early this evening. A big barrage was put up by anti-aircraft guns on. the Thames estuary and machine-gun fire was heard above the clouds.—British Official Wireless.