PLYMOUTH FIRE-BOMBED

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 January 1941, Page 7

PLYMOUTH FIRE-BOMBED

PROPERTY DAMAGE HEAVY CASUALTIES LIGHT [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, January 14. German raiders dropped fire-bombs and explosives on Plymouth for nearly three hours last night. Several fires broke out, a number of buildings were damaged, and some people were killed and injured. London was free from raiders, but German aeroplanes were reported over Wales and other districts. Little damage was done and few persons were injured.

CALM AT CINEMA. (Recd. Jan. 15, 12.20 p.m.). LONDON, January 14. With a deafening roar, 30 bombers opened a raid on Plymouth, last night. Thousands of incendiaries, together with high-explosives, were dropped, but the casualties were remarkably light, considering the severity of the raid, although much damage was done to property. Waves of raiders continued to bomb the town for three hours.

Hospital patients had a miraculous escape when a bomb demolished the walls and ceiling of the women’s ward. One young girl was killed. Another hospital was damaged by a direct hit. A cinema audience held an impromptu concert, which lasted until the raid ended. One bomb fell close to the cinema, but the audience showed no panic. When the raid began, an usher went on the stage and began to sing. Two soldiers with mouth organs followed her, and soon the audience joined in community singing. Others in the audience did turns on the stage.

Plymouth is carrying on, this morning, and the shopping streets are thronged as usual.

NO DAYLIGHT VISITS. RUGBY, January 14. Regarding air operations over Britain, an Air Ministry and Home Security communique states: Nothing Io report during daylight to-day. JOHNSON RELICS SAVED RUGBY, January 14. Many relics of Doctor Johnson, the eighteenth-century man of letters, escaped harm, when his Gough Square house was damaged in the big fire raid on London. The custodian of the house, in the first week of the war, removed valuable prints, paintings and first editions, and stored them in waterproof wrapping in a large trunk in the basement. Forced by the fire to leave the cottage—the lodge house, —the custodian returned later, and retrieved the trunk which had begun to fill with water. It is now in a place of safety. Although the walls of the house still stand, the interior and most of the historical furniture was badly burnt.

R.A.F. RAIDS LONDON, January 14. . Last night’s raids by the Royal Ah' Force were against ports in occupied France, but they were on a much smaller scale than the widespread attacks against the enemy in the previous 24 hours. RUGBY, January 14. An Air Ministry communique states: Last night, in bad weather, a small force of the Coastal Command aircraft made a successful attack on the submarine base of Lorient. Heavy bombs were observed to burst on the naval ordnance works, and buildings in the docks. The Bomber Command aircraft also attacked targets in the Dunkirk area, and started one large and several smaller fires. From these operations all our planes returned safely. During daylight yesterday, one. of our aircraft was lost on patrol operations.

KIEL CANAL BLOCKED. (Recd. Jan. 15, 11.50 a.m.). LONDON, January 14. Swedish sailors report that the R.A.F. bombing has completely blocked the Kiel Canal, says the Exchange Telegraph’s Gothenburg correspondent. A direct hit brought down a bridge on top of the steamer Isa, which was sunk across the canal. The R.A.F. day and night attacks have not been relaxed,’ despite the bad weather, and they appear to be increasingly more systematic than Germany’s. * Well-informed -circles now believe that the Bomber Command’s offensive, and not merely the weather, is restricting the Luftwaffe’s regular raids. Germany was finding it necessary to conserve supplies for some time previous to any largescale attacks. Reports from Berlin say that the “Borsen Zeitung” violently attacks the Swedish Press, for publishing London correspondents’ views of the. R.A.F., about "the change in roles with the Luftwaffe, as an attacking force.. It is authoritatively stated that Germany has acquired all the warehouses in Bohemia and Moravia, for the storage of tinned foods and rye, , against R.A.F. raids.

i RECONNAISSANCE duties I RUGBY, January 13. i An intelligence officer describes in | an Air Ministry news bulletin the less | spectacular but equally dangerous i part, played in Royal Air Force operations by photograph reconnaissance [crews. Pilots, observers, air gunners, , and wireless operators all co-operate in bringing home the best pictures obtainable of aerodromes and other military objectives in Germany and j occupied territory. | Of the two cameras carried—to1 gether they weigh only 281 b or 601 b less than their German counterparts—one is vertical and worked electrically, the lens pointing through a hole in ■ the floor, and the other is oblique and . hand operated. When the objective—- ' an aerodrome foi’ example—is reached, , a control button is pressed and the , camera begins to do its work recordr ing the dispositions of the Luftwaffe L station with 20 or 30 aeroplanes on the L tarmac or dispersed round the boun- . dary. “To make matters more exciting,” ; says the intelligence officer, . .“there I are often fighters diving on the bomb--1 er’s tail, but the air gunners hold their . fire until the Messerschmitts close in. Then they let them have it good and

hard. In the meantime the vertical camera continues to run. To make certain of good results, the pilot brings the aircraft down to 1000 feet. At this height the machine gets a warm reception from pom-poms and machine-guns, but the further record taken by the oblique camera is well worth it. Two or three hours after the crew has landed in safety, copies of the prints will be in the hands of experts. A stereoscope and magnifiers will tell the trained eyes and mind an amazing amount of detail and a report will soon be on its way to the operational staff.