COAST MYSTERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 39, 14 August 1940, Page 9

COAST MYSTERY

SHELLS FROM FRANCE?

DAMAGE TO HOMES

METAL PICKED UP.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received August 14, 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 13. A mysterious incident for the report of which there is no official confirmation occurred yesterday on the south-east coast, where, after an explosion which caused damage to several houses, a piece of metal resembling part of the nose-cap of a shell was picked up. The authorities are now examining heavy fragments of grooved steel which were picked up in a south-eastern area.

i Two persons were killed and a number of others injured in one explosion. People attributed the explosion to gunfire in the district, or alternatively to shelling from long-range German batteries across the Channel, as it is learned some batteries have done in other parts. One explosion tore through the upper storeys of two houses, levelling the roof tops. Another house had its front exposed as though it had been cut with a knife. Residents think that the damage was caused by shellfire, because no aeroplanes were overhead when the four explosions occurred.

The Berne correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says reports are current that 40-mile guns around Calais and Dunkirk have already opened fire and are laying a barrage behind Dover.

A report has also been received from New York that the Germans are shelling Britain from France.