BOMBS ESCAPED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20259, 29 May 1940, Page 7

BOMBS ESCAPED

PRINCESS AND BABIES ATTACK AT QUAYSIDE LONDON, May 15Thirty German aeroplanes attacked the ship which brought Princess Juliana, Prince Bernhard, and their two babies to England at the weekend. Princess Juliana escaped death narrowly on the quayside in Holland. She had just stepped from her car and was assisting a nurse to carry the gas-proof cot, in which her youngest baby was sleeping, when a German aeroplane power-dived. Its bombs crashed on to the end of the pier, less than 200 yards away, smashing it completely, and killing a man. The explosion shook everyone in the Royal party. Other German aeroplanes took up the attack. When their bombs failed, they machine-gunned the decks of the Royal vessel. Seamen defending the vessel fired anti-aircraft guns until they''were too hot to touch. Still under heavy fire from the German aeroplanes, the ship revei'sed down the canal and reached the open sea. Here the guns of British warships and British fighter aeroplanes joined in the attack on the German machines, some of which were brought down. “The sky seemed full of metal,” said an officer. “It seemed as if nothing could live through the barrage. Yet they still returned to the attack. “Two aeroplanes attacked together, sweeping our ship from stem to stern. As our guns turned on them another bomber swooped and dropped a very heavy bomb, shaking the ship. The raiders then drew off.”