NIGHT RAIDS ON BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 11

NIGHT RAIDS ON BRITAIN

Damage In Swansea LONDON HOSPITAL HIT

LONDON, February 20.

The Air Ministry reports that enemy planes in the early hours last night attacked Swansea and damaged a considerable number of houses ■ and business premises. None of the fires was serious. The casualties included a number of killed.

A short attack was made on the London area, with some damage. The number of casualties was small. They included a few killed. Bombs were also dropped at places in southern England and at one point in eastern Scotland. All the raids eeased soon after midnight. A high-explosive bomb fell in the middle of a street in a Home Counties town, wrecking houses on either side and killing four persons. The now almost invariable rule that the Luftwaffe, iu raiding Loudon, does the greatest damage to hospitals held true last night, when a high-explosive bomb made a direct hit on block 3 of the male wards at the London County Hospital. Two bombs extensively damaged a children’s hospital. A number of patients were killed in their beds and others were seriously injured. Stair Works All Night. Doctors, nurses, and rescue squads worked all night at the County Council Hospital and saved many lives, doctors having to operate on some of the badly injured. Nurses carried others across an iron bridge from the part of the block which was still standing. Anglican and Roman Catholic chaplains teamed up in helping to move the injured to safety. The rescue work was completed before dawn. An air-raid alarm was sounded again in London this morning. The sirens were heard as the women’s section of the British Legion was beginning its annual meeting in Caxton Hall. The chairman asked. “Would anybody like to do anything about this?” The delegates roared with laughter, and the meeting continued. A communique issued in Berlin states that planes effectively attacked aerodromes in the Midlands, port installations on the Isle of Wight, factories in Scotland, and docks at London, Swansea; Plymouth, and Chatham. An official communique states that the only reports received of bombs being dropped today came from a few points in East Anglia. There was scarcely any damage and no casualties. It is now learned that the number of persons killed in London last night was somewhat greater than at first reported. There was some offensive patrol activity by our fighters over the French coast during the day. Two of onr fighters are missing. Glasgow Fighters. Tin- I,ord Provost of Glasgow staled thill tin- Glasgow Fighter Squadron had accounted for 168 enemy planes, of which 100 were definitely destroyed and the remainder so badly damaged that if is doubtful whether they could have reached I heir buses. It is now rove,'tied that Southwark Cathedral, in London, was damaged in a recent air raid. The eal liedr::l has Hourly 000 years of tradition and a large number of literary associations.

One 'if the stained-glass windows, which is reported to bo undamaged, commemorates John Harvard, founder of the American University, who was baptized in the-church. Widespread damage was done to stained-glass windows commemorating Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dr. Johnson, and other great figures eomreeled with Soulhwa rk.

The Guildhall, which was gutted when the Germans made their biggest fire-raising attack on the City of Lon*

don, is Io l>e temporarily roofed. The walls are still standing, and the building is to be made temporarily weatherproof at a cost of £2OOO. Last night aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked the enemy naval base at Brest, and docks at Calais. None of the aircraft is missing