FIRST TERROR RAID

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 136, 10 June 1940, Page 9

FIRST TERROR RAID

NAZIS ON ENGLAND

LITTLE DAMAGE

HEINKEL DOWN IN SUFFOLK

LONDON, June 9,

The Germans' first terror raid against England occurred before midnight last night over a town on th,e south coast when an enemy plane swept along the seafront. Empty cartridges were heard falling on rooftops and in the streets, and it seemed that the raider was actually spraying the roofs and chimney pots. He even potted at a small group of men talking in a street, and several saved themselves by flopping to the pavement while others ran for cover. The raider was engaged by machine-gun fire from the ground.

This raider also machine-gunned a lifeboat crew who had been called out to find, a missing yacht, but only one or two bullets struck the boat's rudder.

Raiders were also over a number of other parts of England.

MANY EXPLOSIONS

Air-raid warnings were sounded in Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northumr berland, Yorkshire, and Durham. In most cases the "all-clear" signal was given within SO minutes. Many explosions were heard.

An. air-raid warning was also sounded on the south coast. Gunfire was heard on the Essex coast shortly before midnight.

Two bodies were recovered from a Heinkel bomber which crashed near an old rectory in Suffolk. A third man, who/ was over six feet high, was taken prisoner. He had an automatic revolver which was fully loaded and another eight rounds in a spare magazine. He struggled violently as he was taken to hospital, declaring that he wanted to continue to fight. It is believed that he left the machine in a parachute before the crash. . A police inspector who was the first to reach the crashed bomber says that the German tried to draw his revolver, but was overpowered. The German had one leg broken.

A house was badly damaged by the bomber in its crash.

ELDERLY PEOPLE DIE,

Kent, Hertfordshire, and the North Midlands also had alarms last night. A Yorkshire woman aged 61 collapsed and died in an air-raid shelter during

an alarm early this "morning, and at man aged 60 died while taking refuge in a neighbour's shelter on the east coa)t.

Enemy planes raided Lincolnshire for the third successive night and dropped high-explosive bombs, many of them of small calibre. Windows were blown out. <

Bombs fell in a street of a Northamptonshire town, shattering all the windows on either side. Another fell near a 1 swimming pool and a third in gardens. There were no casualties.

For the most part the raiders flew at a great'height. _ /

The Air Ministry states: "During last night and early this morning enemy aeroplanes crossed the coast. Some bombs were dropped, but little material damage was caused. There were no casualties."

The German High Command states: "In the course of armed air reconnaissances against the east and south coasts of Britain bombs were dropped on English aerodromes and also the port of Dover."