UNUSUAL QUIET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 239, 8 October 1940, Page 8

UNUSUAL QUIET.

SUNDAY NIGHT. Londoners Go Cheerfully To Work On Monday. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Reed. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 7. Last night (Sunday) was the quietest night since the blitzkrieg. An alert before dawn, like that of last evening, was brief. Nothing was heard in the central districts. Night transport services operated normally and many sleepers .joked, wondering why there was the silence. The shelters had the usual occupants who feared the night visitation.

People went to work refreshed and cheerful. There were fewer yawns in buses. Brilliant sunshine followed a stormy night in the, Straits of Dover. A mist ve'led the French coast.

The> Air Ministry, reports that shortly after dark yesterday (Sunday) a few bombs were dropped by an enemy plane on the outskirts of the London area, causing little damage and no casualties.

Single planes crossed the south-east coasts at one or two points just before dawn but did not penetrate far inland. A few bombe were dropped, but no casualties have so far been reported. There was no other enemy activity over the country during the night.

A possible explanation of the absence of German raiders .is the wild weather in the Straits of Dover, where rain was accompanied by a' full south-westerly gale, and heavy seas pounded the southeast coast. Visibility was almost nil. House of Lords Hit. The high explosive bomb which fell in the forecourt of the Houses of Parliament) between the public entrance and the peers' entrance, during Saturday's air raid,'blew in hundreds of leaded windows, and smashed a 30ft window at the end of Westminster Hall, including part of the massive stone framirtg.

Stained glass windows in the side of the House of Lords debating chamber were blown out, doors were torn from their hinges and glass and metal rained down on the golden thrones used by Their Majesties at the opening of Parliament, but the thrones were not scratched, although the surrounding carpets and walls were damaged.

More glass was broken in the lobbies and cloakrooms of the House of Commons.

Flying splinters caused three holes in the western face of Big Ben, but Big Ben time still shows on all four sides. Lord Teviot, . Lord Lawrence and several officials suffered minor cute. Children Suffer.

Four women and two children were killed at Folkestone when a raider, diving from clouds, dropped several bombs on small houses. A bomb' demolished a house in' which, there were five children, deluding a weF" O km b4by ' Two of the childlen L AntlU??^' °» • town in Eas t