SPORADIC RAIDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 9, 10 July 1940, Page 7

SPORADIC RAIDS

GERMANS ON BRITAIN

INCENDIARY BOMBS

SCARE FOR CATTLE

(U.P.A. and Official Wireless.)

(Received July 10, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, July 9.

The Air Ministry and the Ministry for Home Security announce that enemy aircraft made bombing attacks on several districts today. Some damage was done to premises at a port in the Bristol Channel and a few casualties were caused.

Fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft guns went into action at a number of points and losses were inflicted on the enemy. Reports so far received confirm that two enemy bombers and one fighter were destroyed by our fighters, and one enemy fighter by anti-aircraft guns.

It is officially confirmed that two more enemy raiders were shot down yesterday, making the day's total eight. Three British fighters were lost in another air battle on the south coast tonight, making- the third in .this vicinity today. A thrilling machinegun battle ensued at an altitude of 10,000 feet. A German plane was seen falling, and a member of the crew landed by parachute. No bombs'were dropped.

A woman was killed and a man in the same house was seriously injured during a raid on the south-east coast. Incendiary bombs fell in Wales and Scotland, but little damage was done.:

It is officially stated that sporadic raids were made by isolated enemy aircraft on north-east and south-east England and the east coast of Scotland last night and early this morning. A number of high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped, but little damage was done. A.R.P. officials quickly dealt with a considerable number of incendiary bombs dropped on a town in the south-east. There were a few casualties in a Scottish town.

This afternoon raiders visited Wales and areas in south-east, south, and south-west England. In Wales a raider killed two persons and injured another before gunfire drove him off. GOOD SHOOTING. An anti-aircraft battery on the south coast put up a high-speed record in shooting down a Messerschmitt with eight shells in half a minute at a range of between 6000 and 7000 yards. Spitfires then drove off other fighters. Raiders over south-west England dropped bombs near a town and also 100 incendiary bombs on a field where cattle were thrown into a panic.

Raiders from the north-west encountered strong fighter opposition high over the south-east coast. The Germans flew on westward, hotly engaged by the fighters. A Berlin announcement states: "Our air force attacked harbours, tank depots, airfields, arms factories, and shipping objectives, severely damaging wharves at Devonport, oil depots at Ipswich, Canvey ' Island, Thames Haven, and Tilbury, explosives works at Harwich, and large chemical works at Billingham. Several planes were destroyed on the ground at one aerodrome. "Enemy air attacks on July 8 over Belgium and Holland were without success. Raids on north and west Germany damaged houses and killed several persons. The enemy yesterday lost eleven planes and five German planes are missing." LONDON, July 9. When the crew of a battered German bomber landed by parachute in a town on the north-east coast a woman bailed up one German, took away his revolver, and handed him over to motor-cyclists.