LONDON’S NEW NEED

Grey River Argus, 2 January 1941, Page 6

LONDON’S NEW NEED

Fire-bomb Fighters CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS. [British Official Wireless] (Received January 1, 9.15 p.m.) RUGBY, December 31. London has emerged from its ordeal due to the Luftwaffe’s attempt to destroy the heart of London by ' fire, with .a heightened spirit of determination to take advantage of the experience to put into effect measures to minimise the dangerous results of any future onslaught of this kind. One of the lessons learned is the need of fire-watching patrols on the roof of every commercial building, large or small. The Minister of Supply, Mr Morrison, in a broadcast appealed to the householders and small shopkeepers to form themselves into parties of neighbours to take turns in the dangerous work of watching for the fall of lire bombs, and to deal with them. Mr Morrison expressed confidence that this urgent need would at once be met.

The Minister began his address: “I am here to call upon you—some millions of you—for an urgent duty!” He concluded: “Now then! The latest answer to the latest attack! Fall in the fire bomb fighters!” 500 Killed IN MANCHESTER’S RAID. [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] (Received J'anuary 1, 10 p.m ) LONDON, January 1. It is revealed that about five hundred persons were killed last week in the big air raid on Manchester. To Defeat Night Raiders NEW BRITISH METHOD. EXPECTED TO OPERATE SOON. (Received January I, 7.30 p.m.) OTTAWA, December 31.

Sir Hugh Dowding is en route to Washington to confer on the standardisation of aircraft equipment. He said: “A method has been found to defeat the German night raiders. 1 confidently believe that it won’t be long before all of the weight and sting will have been taken from the nightbombing attacks.” He added that equipment for this new method was rapidly being completed. It was expected that the worst of the night bombing would be over by the coming Spring. ONLY 7 NAZI PLANES. LOST IN WEEK OVER LONDON. RUGBY, December 30. ( During the week - ended at midnight on Saturday, the Germans in raids on London lost seven planes — two in the early hours of Sunday, December 22, three on the night of Monday-Tuesday, one during Tuesday, and one on Christmas Day, During the same period, no British fighters were lost. Five British bombers were lost in the course of widespread and heavy attacks over enemy and enemy-occu-pied territory—one on the night of Monday-Tuesday, one on the night of Tuesday-Wednesday, one on the night of Thursday-Friday, and two on the night of Friday-S'aturday. 1940 PLANE LOSSES . LONDON. December 31. The R.A.F. during 1940 lost 1050 planes. Four hundred pilots were saved. The Air Ministry reported that over 3100 German warplanes were destroyed over Britain and around her shores during 1940, of which 3090 were t sfiot down by fighters and the remainder by anti-aircraft guns, the balloon barrage and other defence forces