VERY EFFECTIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 66, 14 September 1940, Page 11

VERY EFFECTIVE

ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE

MAY BE DEVELOPED

FRIDAY NIGHT RAID

! LONDON, September 13. Today's raids (Friday) were the first of the extensive and prolonged [ raids which have been made on London by daylight. For most of the time there was low cloud, so Londoners were able to see the German I planes only at rare intervals. The anti-aircraft barrage which had been so effective on the last few nights burst out with great intensity from time to time through the morning whenever a plane was heard. Apparently the incendiary bombs dropped in central London all came from one plane, and they fell mostly on roadways and buildings. The stations of the underground railways are not airraid shelters, but today hundreds of people went below and sat on the platforms and steps. Not all the bombs dropped were incendiaries. Besides the bombs dropped on Buckingham Palace, one was dropped on a park and another on a big building next door to a hotel in central London. Great interest is felt in this intensive attack after the steadily decreasing effectiveness of the night raids. Tonight London's big barrage is again sending up a hail of shells in a wide circle around the centre of London. So far there has been little activity over Central London itself, and it looks as if the barrage is keeping the raiders at a distance. Flashes of bursting shells could be seen and heard at all points of the compass. Here and there a solitary searchlight pierced the sky, but nothing could be heard of the planes overhead. It is disclosed that among the places outside London damaged in Thursday's raids was the district headquarters of the American ambulance unit at Tunbridge Wells. On Thursday night, for the second night in succession, German raiders j had « bad time from the terrific ariti-j

aircraft fire which London's guns are now putting up. Eeuter's air correspondent said today that the new predictor system may be developed to the point where the ground gunners can work in co-opera-tion with the night fighters. If that proves the case, the problem of intercepting raiding bombers at night will be almost solved. Thursday night's raids were not on a very heavy scale, and, unlike those of the previous nights, they were directed against many areas in the British Isles. The German aircraft operated singly or in staall formations, and were heavily engaged by the defences. In the London area a number of high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped, but the damage was much less than on the previous nights. The" number of people killed or injured was very small. In other parts of the country some houses were destroyed in a town on the east outskirts of London and in two towns in. Lancashire. There were a small number of casualties in each of these places. Elsewhere there was little damage and very few casualties, although an area in the Midlands and a district on the north-west coast had their longest raids yet. Planes flew over intermittently nearly all night anrl were met, as in London, with fierce anti-aircraft fire. German planes also visited Wales and the south-east. Friday's daylight raids on districts away, from London were mostly by single planes. Two towns on the southeast were attacked on Friday morning, and on Friday afternoon a single bomber dropped twelve bombs across the centre of a south-east town. One person was killed and a number injured and there was some damage to houses and property. In another case a Dornier dropped nine bombs on the south-east coast in the afternoon. There was not much damage to property. - In the north-east several bombs were dropped near a public institution and infirmary, where a casualty ward was demolished. There were no casualties but one man was killed by a bomb which was dropped on a nearby housing* estate. Places bombed in the south-east of England included Eastbourne, the famous holiday resort, some places in Kent, and a town in Surrey. Casualties have mostly been slight.