LIVELY NIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 23666, 28 August 1940, Page 7

LIVELY NIGHT

MANY EXCITING EXPERIENCES DIRECT HIT ON CORNIER BOMBER CRASHES ON HOUSES Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright LONDON, August 27. (Received August 28, at 10.15 a.m.) For six hours the drone of planes was practically unbroken over London. As fast as one plane retired another appeared.

A high-explosive bomb completely wrecked a house in outer London. A.R.P. squads dug the occupants out of the debris. The householder was killed, but his wife and two other occupants were unhurt. There were several casualties in this neighbourhood. Convalescents at one London hospital were taken to trench shelters during the raid, and others too ill to move were placed on mattresses under their beds. Explosions in the vicinity shook the hospital, but there was no damage. Two air raid wardens who were investigating a light were seriously injured by a screaming bomb. Four bombs fell in the residential district of a London suburb and broke the windows and blew in the doors of several houses. A dive bomber attacked houses on the fringe of London and dropped three small bombs, making a crater in the road. An A.R.P. squad quickly repaired the damage. Anti-aircraft guns in the southern area scored direct hits on a Dornier returning from London, Five of the crew baled out and were rounded up by home guards and police. The machine crashed on a bungalow and an adjoining villa, the occupants of which were in shelters. Both houses were destroyed. There were no casualties. A south-western town had its worst raid since the outbreak of the war. It began just after nightfall. Bombers came over all night and dropped explosive and incendiary bombs in all parts of the town and surrounding districts. Several fires were speedily extinguished. Two bombs fell on a poor law institution, causing casualties, some of which were fatal. There was no general distribution of the morning newspapers in London until the middle of the morning. Except for loss of sleep, most Londoners appeared to consider this the chief deprivation as a result of the air raids.

SALUTARY LESSON

NAZIS CHANGE THEIR TACTICS NEW LINE STILL INEFFECTIVE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 27. (Received August 28, at 10 a.m.) ‘ The Times ’ says the change of tactics in the German air attack is sufficient admission of failure to encourage the defenders, though it certainly promises them no early relaxation of strain. Having been taught discretion by the severity of the losses sustained in its attacks, the German air force has fallen back upon night bombing as a, main offensive recourse. It is a method giving a better chance of avoiding casualties and, in fact, the destruction dealt out by our fighters, though they still maintain a remarkable superiority to their opponents, is not on the same scale that they achieved, and still achieve, by daylight. But this relative immunity of bombers is preserved only at a cost of much greater uncertainty of navigation and aim. And in proportion, as civilians and their property suffer, military targets go unscathed. In the meanwhile an equally determined and much better offensive directed without intermission upon the military vitals of Germany herself has been going on since last September, and the experience our pilots gained in the leaflet raids is now being turned to brilliant account.. While the Germans are wasting a large proportion of ammunition in destruction that can have no effect on the issue of the fight, their own aerodromes, factories, oil depots, and communications are every night going up in flames behind them.

NAZ! PLANE OVER EIRE

BOMBS DROPPED OH WEXFORD MANY HOUSES DAMAGED LONDON, August 27. A Dublin message states that at least 10 bombs were dropped at Wexford by the Nazi plane. Many houses were damaged and a number of people were injured by glass and splinters. BERLIN PROFESSES IGNORANCE BERLIN, August 27, (Received August 28, at 11 a.m.) Military circles declared nothing is known of the Eire bombing.