FEW RAIDS ON BRITAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 December 1940, Page 7

FEW RAIDS ON BRITAIN

TIME-BOMB KILLS SEVERAL LAST NIGHT’S ATTACK HEAVY [BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, December 15. German raids on Britain on Saturday night on the whole were few, causing little damage. A few persons were killed and others injured in a town on the Thames estuary. There was also little enemy activity on Friday night, when some damage, in which a small number of persons were injured, was caused at a few points on the east coast. During daylight hotu;s on Saturday enemy activity was again on a very small scale. A single aircraft dropped bombs late in the afternoon in the West Midlands. Shops and houses were damaged, arid a small number of persons were killed, others being injured. A Ministry of Home Security communique states that no bombs were dropped in any area during daylight on Friday. A time bomb exploded on Saturday in the London area, killing several persons, including a police inspector. Two were sent to ’ hospital. The bomb wrecked engineering premises, a garage several houses and shops, the occupants of which had been evacuated.

A bomb recently wrecked 145 Piccadilly, where Their Majesties lived as the Duke and Duchess of York. In spite of the intense bombing to which London’s 14,000 miles of gas mains have been subjected in recent weeks, less than three persons per thousand are without gas. Twentythree gas workers have been killed and 84 injured, while working since the intense German raids began.

SUNDAY ALL PEACEFUL

RUGBY, December 15.

Enemy activity over Britain, last night, was slight, states the official communique, which adds: “In the early evening, bombs were dropped on a town in the Thames Estuary. Several houses were damaged and a few people were killed and others injured. Elsewhere very little damage was done and very few casualties were reported.” The presence of enemy aircraft was reported over Northern Ireland, last night, according to a statement of the Ministry of Public Security in Northern Ireland. A.A. guns were in action. No bombs were dropped and no incident reported. No bombs were dropped in any part of England during daylight today, states the official communique. NIGHTFALL RAIDERS. (Recd. December 6, 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, December 15. Relays of German bombers, facing heavy anti-aircraft fire shortly after nightfall, rained a hail of bombs on a northern England town. Raiders were also reported over west and southwest areas. The sky was cleai - and a brilliant full moon made flying conditions ideal DRIFTER DOWNS PLANE LONDON, December 15. “When H.M. drifter Evening Primrose was attacked by aircraft in the North Sea yesterday,” states an Admiralty communique, “she retaliated immediately and effectively with her anti-aircraft armament. The enemy was seen to be hit and set on fire. Visibility on the surface was so low that the enemy aircraft was not seen to crash into the water, but almost immediately after the burning aircraft disappeared in the mist a crash and an explosion were heard from the direction in which it had been flying. In the circumstances it is considered certain that the Evening Primrose accounted for its attacker. No damage or casualties were sustained by the Evening Primrose.”

R.A.F. RAIDS

KIEL, BREMEN AND BORDEAUX

LONDON, December 15.

Difficult weather was met by British aircraft in attacks on Germany on Friday night. An Air Ministry communique says: “Aircraft of the Bomber Command made an attack on ship-building yards at Kiel, on factories, and other targets, on the Bre- ’ men docks, and on aerodromes in Holland. Aircraft of the Coastal Comrnand attacked the submarine base at Bordeaux. No British aircraft were lost in these operations.” Additional details about Friday night’s raids on Bremen are given by the Air Ministry news service, which says the town was almost entirely hidden by cloud when heavy bombers came over early in the night. They had been detailed to attack railways, factories, and warehouses near the harbour. Both incendiary and high explosive bombs were dropped, and after the attack the glow of strong fires penetrated and lit up the clouds. At Kiel, heavy bombers raided the docks and shipyards. The weather was bad, as at Bremen, but the pilots made certain that many bombs fell on the target area. The attacks on the submarine base at Bordeaux were continued by Coastal Command aircraft in a short and destructive raid with heavy bombs. The first attacking pilot got a hit on big quayside buildings. His observer saw a succession of brilliant blue flashes along the dock wall, lasting for 15 seconds. Later stages of the raid were even more spectacular. An explosion near the gates of one dock was followed by a dozen others along the edge of the basin. When the Coastal Command pilots turned home, the submarine base was lit up by two fires and overhung by swirling clouds of smoke. ESSEN CASUALTIES A bomb which the Royal Air Force dropped on the Krupps works at Essen penetrated a shelter under the works and killed 400 workers and • injured 1800. Recently a bomb broke I a water main in Berlin, and at the same time blocked a shelter, which flooded, drowning 700. A British United Press correspondent on the' German frontier says he is assured that these reports are authentic. They are certairily widely believed in Germany, where the facts about Royal Air Force raids are spreading slowly among the-population. With dawn of December 13 another

week of widespread heavy attacks on Germany and occupied territory ended. The weather was extremely unfavourable for air raids, but in spite of this more than 42 attacks have been made on military objectives, apart from a great number of raids on aerodromes. Dusseldorf, which was raided oh' two successive nights, suffered concentrated heavy attacks on the Presswaltzwerke. blast furnaces and steel works, and the Mannesmann Ruhrenwerke armament works. A feature of these raids was the number of fires started, one of which was described as “the largest ever seen.”

/ The submarine bases at Lorient, Brest, and Bordeaux were heavily bombed. Among the many aerodromes attacked, some several times during one night, was Le Touquet, where hangars and aircraft were set on fire and the. aerodrome machine-gunned from a height of 500 feet. From all operations during the week 12 British aircraft failed to return. Two enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air by Royal Air Force bombers. FRENCH PORTS BOMBED . ' RUGBY, Dec. 15. An Air Ministry communique issued states that last night, small formations of the Coastal Command aircraft attacked the enemy-occupied ports of Brest and Lorient. All our aircraft returned safely. GERMAN FAILURE. RUGBY, December 14. Germany failed in attempting against. Britain the air bombing strategy used with such admitted success in Poland, Holland, Belgium and France. This opinion is expressed in “Aircraft Engineering,” a journal which says: Raids on determined and well-organised defences are a very different proposition." Poland was not in a position to offer effective resistance to attacks launched concurrently with the invasion. Holland and Belgium equally suffered under the disadvantage of surprise attack, while France had an Air Force pitifully inadequate in numbers and quality. It is impossible to do anything ‘ but insist on definite superiority of British aeroplanes in comparison with those they so far have had to meet. Their bombers are without defensive armament in any way comparable to that of British bombers. German bombers have been quite Unable to cope with British fighters, who consequently have been in a position to attack with much greater confidence and determination. AEROPLANE LOSSES.

LONDON, Deecmber 15.

Aeroplane losses in the war so far are: Britain 1740. Germany 5176, Italy 447.