SOUTHERN TOWN RAIDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1940, Page 7

SOUTHERN TOWN RAIDED

CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE LONDON ALSO BOMBED I [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, December 1. German bombers did considerable damage in one town on .the south coast on Saturday night. Fires were •started and shops, houses and other buildings were shattered. It is feared that there were a number of killed and injured. Elsewhere raids were on a small scale. Three points in the London area suffered from attacks and there was a small number of [deaths.The comparative quiet of .London s 'nights was broken by the heaviest 'raid for some time. A heavy bomb I in the London area killed seven per- ! sons and injured several others. Most of the casualties occurred in two pubI lie houses. Two ambulance men were killed and three wardens were seriously injured. The audience in a London cinema, when an incendiary bomb blazed up, remained calm while the staff dealt with the bomb. A lone raider bombed an eastern town, when one person was killed and three were seriously injured. Three enemy aircraft were destroyed on Saturday and the Royal Air Force lost two fighters, the pilots of which are safe, states an Air Ministry communique. During daylight the enemy air activity was mainly concentrated on south-east England, where bombs were dropped in several places. During the morning a small number of raiders succeeded in reaching London and dropped a few bombs. There was no great damage and there were few casualties.

Enemy attacks on Friday night 'were mainly directed against the j London area, the communique adds. There were many fires but few of j them were serious. Most of them were soon put out, and all were under conItrol by the early hours of the morning. Houses and some other buildings were damaged. A few people I were killed, and others were injured. Bombs were also dropped in places in southern and south-eastern England, and at one point in the southwest. At a few of these places fires were caused and houses were damaged. The number of casualties reported from all these areas is small, i At Liverpool and one other place in north-west England bombs were dropped which caused very few casualties and did little damage. Described by the Nazis as a heavy “reprisal” attack, Friday night’s raids on Britain are the subject of a further Ministry of Home Security communique, which states: “Further details are now available of the raids on London last night, and on the Merseyside on the previous night. These confirm that the casualties on the Merseyside as a whole were not heavy but a number of persons were killed and injured in one building which received a direct hit. The casualties in London last night were somewhat heavier than was at first thought.” SOUTHAMPTON FIRES LONDON', December 1. The Air Ministry in a report states: The enemy air activity on Saturday night was mainly on and near the South Coast of England. Incendiary bombs caused a number of fires. Some of these were serious. Considerable damage was done to shops and houses and other buildings. It is feared that a number were killed. A few were injured by bombs dropped in the London area at three points during small raids. There was little damage done. The German News Agency states: As soon as darkness fell on Saturday night. German air units started a concentrated attack on Southampton. Countless bombs were discharged. By 9.30 p.m., there were eight large fires, which, pointed the way for the succeeding squadrons.

HIDEOUS DESTRUCTION. TOWN AN INFERNO. (Recd. December 2, 1.25 p.m.) LONDON, December 1. 'A ceaseless succession of raiders, using Coventry tactics—incendiaries followed by explosives—last night wrought havoc in the central area of Southampton, which suffered the worst raid since the outbreak of the war. It was impossible to walk far in the town, this morning, without finding traces of the night’s hideous destruction, which was largely caused by fires. Acrid fumes still fouled the air. Dozens of noble buildings lay in smouldering ruins, including many churches. A theatre, a newspaper office, a library, and scores of shops were also demolished.

At the height of the raid, the whole centre of the town was transformed into an inferno, with flames leaping under the black sky, jets of water hissing from hundreds of hoses, and ear-splitting crashes as highexplosive bombs rained down. The volunteer services worked magnificently through the terrible ordeal. A blast from one bomb blew one girl driver’s ambulance on to the footpath.. She jumped from the driving seat, and found three injured men lying on the. roadway. The girl, unaided, picked up the men and drove them to a hospital. After the hospital became uninhabitable by bombing, 70 patients, during the most severe part, of the raid, were evacuated to another building, without any casualties. The nurses’ quarters, adjoining the hospital, were destroyed. The nuns were not injured when a convent was burnt. A priest worked untiringly, in order to prevent the spread of the fire. Sixty people had a remarkable escape, when a public-house from which they had just departed, was destroyed. Another 60 people got away safely i from a big store, under which they were sheltering, ’ and which was destroyed. I Hundreds were seen this, morning, ' collecting what belongings were. uni damaged from their wrecked houses, I and trying to find accommodation in the surrounding districts, but everyone was calm, and there was no panic. Their attitude may be summed up by a newspaper placard, “Hitler comes. Hitler goes. We go on for ever.”

DAYLIGHT ATTEMPTS . (Recd. December 2, 11.35 a.m.) > LONDON, December 1. R.A.F. fighters ‘several .times; despersed.f or mations. of Messerschmitts attempting to raid south-east . Enj*? land, this afternoon. London had three Short daylight, alerts. ' GERMAN CLAIMS ; (Recd. December 2, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, December'l. _ A German communique says: Our air force last night undertook a largescale attack against a vital port on the Channel coast. GERMAN CRASH IN EIRE DUBLIN, December 1. It is officially stated here that five members. of the crew of a German ’plane, which crashed on the Kerry coast, have been interned. One of the crew was injured. R.A.F. OFFENSIVE COLOGNE AND BREMEN RUGBY, November 30. . British bombers last night made a successful attack on communications and inland port installations at Cologne. An Air Ministry communique states that they also bombed the naval shipyards at Bremen. Other forces of aircraft attacked the ports of Boulogne and Le Havre, the submarine base at L’Orient, and several enemy aerodromes. All the British aircraft returned safely. A German communique admits that a small factory was damaged when British aeroplanes raided north-west Germany last night. Two civilians were seriously injured and several houses were damaged.

PLANES SINK SHIPS. RUGBY, December 1. An Air Ministry communique states: Owing to adverse weather conditions, our bomber operations last night were cancelled.. Last Friday, Coastal Command aircraft successfully torpedoed an enemy supply-ship off the Dutch coast. Another successful torpedo attack, the third in 72 hours, involving over 20,000 tons of enemy supply shipping, was made last Friday, by Beaufort aircraft of the Coastal Command. A vessel of 8000 tons was struck in the stern, and sank off the north Dutch coast. Earlier in the day, it had been sighted in a wellescorted convoy of small ships. When the Beaufort went out to attack, the pilot found that there was practically no cloud cover. Nevertheless, he came down to attack. He flew safely through a storm of anti-aircraft fire, and before he left the spot, the ship was sinking by the stern. A later patrol found that only its upper works were awash.

COMPARATIVE LOSSES. RUGBY, December 1. The high disproportion of British to German losses was a feature of the results of air battles over and around Britain in November. On several days in the latter part of the month, not a single British aeroplane was lost. During the month, the British losses totalled 54, compared with 234 German aircraft destroyed. The disproportion is even more remarkable, when considered in terms of personnel, for of 54 British aircraft lost during the month, the pilots of 23 of them were saved. On- one day—November 28—the score went in favour of the Germans, when seven British machines were lost to six of the enemy. For five days, November 22 to 26 inclusive, however, the British losses were nil, whereas in that period the Nazis lost 24 machines in attempted raids over Britain. The figure of 234 enemy machines destroyed during the month includes a further two brought down on Saturday, making five for the day, announced the Air Ministry to-day. For purposes of comparison, it is interesting to note that, in October, enemy aircraft lost over Britain numbered 241. The British losses totalled 119, but 62 of the pilots were saved Plane losses since the outbreak of war to midnight on November 30 were: British 1,700, German 5,131, Italian 365, Greek 11.