ENEMY BOMBERS LESS ACTIVE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23131, 21 September 1940, Page 13

ENEMY BOMBERS LESS ACTIVE

London Approached

From North

FRESH ATTEMPTS

BY DAYLIGHT

(OiITED MESS ASSOCIATION—C'OI'i'itIGUT.)

(Received September 20, 11 p.m.)

LONDON, September 20,

German raiders renewed their attacks over the south-east coast of Britain this morning, after a night in which enemy air activity was on a smaller scale and less effective than on recent nights.

This morning strong forces of bombers, escorted by fighters, crossed the Kent coast, but up to 10 a.m. no sign had been seen of them over London. It was reported from the coast that large forces of Messerschmitts were flying below the German bombers, instead of above them as usual.

Last night’s London raiders met a blaze of searchlights over Kent and the Thames Estuary but. flying above the clouds, they proceeded north, attempting to come in to the city by a new path over the north-west suburbs. Clouds hampered the searchlights, which then suddenly went off as fighters roared up and attempted to seek out the raiders and divert them from their targets. Some of the raiders, nevertheless, penetrated to the central area of London, where the anti-aircraft barrage was as heavy as ever. The raiders dive-bombed and glide-bombed from low heights, stirring the antiaircraft guns into new frenzy. An Air Ministry communique describing last night’s raids says that some persons were killed and some injured when a bomb fell on the escape hatch of a public shelter in a park in North London. Rescue work went on throughout the night. There were raid alarms also in Lancashire, Surrey, Essex, Berkshire. Kent, and the Midlands. A bomb struck a hospital in Essex, and small fires were started in the Surrey woods. ■. A raider brought down by anti-air-craft fire in south-west London early this morning narrowly missed a hospital as it crashed to the ground where it blew up. One of the occupants bailed out and was captured. Thursday’s Raids

Raiders were also reported from the provinces and Wales. Thursday’s official communique stated; “No large-scale air action has been reported during the day. Two enemy aircraft dropped bombs m districts in south-east London, causing some damage and casualties. Both were engaged by our fighters and one was shot down. Bombs were also reported from coastal areas in Essex and Sussex and at one point in the west of England. The number of casualties was small. In spite of bad visibility our fighters successfully intercepted a large proportion of the enemy, and flvfe enemy bombers in all have been destroyed.” Cases of persons spending the day waiting for release from beneath the debris of razed buildings have been repeated in several districts. A man rescued from a buried automobile in a West End garage on September 18 died in hospital. Twenty-five hoirs after a bomb had wrecked a shop, rescuers heard the faint cries of a baby It was a four-rnonths-old baby lying in a drawer. The parent;: and grandmother of the child had been killed. Scores of persons in their night attire extinguished a series of fires which a “Molotov breadbasket” started in a northern residential area.

The heaviest casualties resulted from an enormous explosion following the crashing of a raider, fully loaded with bembs. Numbers of buildings were demolished. A rescue party has been struggling all night to release persons imprisoned underground when a wall collapsed. A bomb in a suburb destroyed a Methodist Church and five adjoining houses. A number of windows of the Home Office were broken by the blast of a bomb. Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P., bad her flat bombed twice in her absence. A bomb caused a 30-foot crater on the terrace nearest Westminster Bridge. Two waitresses were killed and there were a dozen casualties. Lord Croft stated that many incendiary bombs had fallen on the Royal Hospital. Chelsea. There were no casualties, and the buildings were undamaged. The directors of the Bank of England held a general court in the bank vaults. Mr Montagu Norman, the governor, announcing a dividend of 6 per cent., said that precautions had been taken to ensure that business would be carried on in all emergencies.

PAYMENTS FROM

FRANCE

SUPPORT OF GERMAN ARMY

20,000,000 REICHSMARKS

A DAY DEMANDED

(Received September 20, 8 p.m.)

RUGBY, September 19

The French “Journal Official” of September 14 publishes a law authorising the opening of a special account for maintenance costs for the German army of occupation. , „ The German Government had fixed this figure at 20,000,000 Reichsmarks a day. This is the figure which, under the terms of the armistice, France has to pay. irrespective of any demands by Italy, or of what reparations Herr Hitler may consider imposing at the peace treaty. Thus Germany is asking 7,300,000,000 Reichsmarks a year from France. , In this connexion it is recalled in a statement issued by the British Foreign Office that under the “Paris decisions’ of January, 1921, reparations were fixed at 2,000,000,000 marks a year. Actually the total paid by Germany amounted to 17,000,000,000. . While the sums now demanded by Germany and those she was hsked to pay in reparations in 1919 cannot very fruitfully be compared because of the change in the real value of the mark to-day as against 1919, it can be reckoned that, leaving requisitioning and payments in kind out of the question, France, a territory with about onethirtieth the paying power of .1919 Germany, has to pay a sum three times the actual maximum annuity ever fixed under the Dawes plan, • The correspondent of the. Daily express” on the French-Spanish frontier says the Germans have collected more than £1.000.000 in fines imposed on the impoverished municipalities of western France for attempts to impede the German army. Brest paid £IOO,OOO, Bordeaux £90,000. and Paris nearly £200,000,