"RAIDERS CRASHED EACH MINUTE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 196, 19 August 1940, Page 7

"RAIDERS CRASHED EACH MINUTE."

HECTIC EPISODES.

(Crowds Cheer R.A.F. As Battle Rages Aloft.

United Prees Association. —Copyright.

[(Reed. 1.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Aug. 18

A low-flying German fighter machine-gunned an army signal training unit on the south-east coast, but when it returned a second time the trainees were waiting with rifles and blazed away. The German reared up and crashed.

A German bomber attempted to machine-gun a bus carrying London trippers who Bought a quiet Sunday in the country. The driver saw the bomber coming and applied the brakes suddenly. The bomber overshot the mark by 50 yards, bullets ripping into the road.

Raiders crashed each minute for nearly a quarter or an hour, when Spitfires and "Hurricanes broke up a formation of 50 Germans attempting to attack a Kentish town.

Five Germane were seen to spiral to the ground when British fighters Bwarmed to an attack against 100 bombers over an Essex town.

Crowds, ignoring the warden's appeals, clustered in doorways to watch the battle, and cheered wildly as the enemy took death dives.

Forty dive-bombere, with large numbers of Messerschmitts circling high overhead, launched a powerful attack on a south-eastern aerodrome. There were a number of casualties among civilians living nearby. A large number of houses were left without water, as the result of a bomb bursting on the main.

Sixteen Meeeerschmitte machinegunned a number of workmen, killing several.