WIDESPREAD RAIDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 267, 9 October 1940, Page 7

WIDESPREAD RAIDS

MANY BOMBS DROPPED. . I NAZIS OVER BRITAIN. (Rec. 9 a.m.). LONDON, Oct. 8. An official communique states that there were -widespread raids during the night over Britain. Many bombs were dropped in London and the suburbs, also a town in North-West England. Reports so far indicate that the damage and casualties are not heavy considering the scale of the attacks. Bombs were also dropped in a number of other districts in and at a few places in Scotland and W ales. An industrial plant in a town of South-East England was damaged, with a few casualties.

TRAIN PASSENGERS KILLED. The attacks on London by German bombers and fighters this morning are described in the following communique : .“The enemy aircraft, which flew over London at a great height, were engaged by our fighters and several were shot down. Some bombs were dropped, but despite the fact that traffic was at its height the casualties were not numerous. There were, however, some fatal injuries among railway passengers, a train being hit by debris. “Another bomb on a mam thoroughfare seriously damaged two omnibuses, and a number of persons were killed and others seriously injured. Later an attack was made by lowflying aircraft, in which a shelter and some industrial buildings were damaged. A few bombs are reported to have been dropped in other parts of South-East England during the morning, but no serious damage or casualties are reported. Aircraft unable to penetrate inland again dropped bombs indiscriminately on coastal towns in Kent, and Sussex, damaging bouses and commercial property. Three enemy aircraft were shot down by our fighters. Two of our fighters are missing. “Aircraft of the Coastal Command without loss shot down two enemy aircraft to-day in the English Channel.” TRAIL OF HUMAN ANGUISH. About 50 German planes were engaged by the anti-aircraft defences and fighters over London during the first alert.

Rescuers recovered some bodies from the wrecked bus. Some passengers were trapped in the top deck for whom there is little hope. Some of those killed are also believed to be under a heap of rubble which had been a nearby shop. Another bomb demolished a block of buildings where at least two were killed. Several were killed and injured during the second alert, when a higli-ex-plosive bomb destroyed three sets of premises and a number of shops on both sides of one road. Two men were killed instantly at the entrance to a restaurant and others were buried under the debris and are believed to have been killed. A bomb which fell in a garden blew an Anderson shelter over the house into the street. . Princess Catherine Calitzine, a Russian princess friend of the Duchess of Kent, to whom she is distantly related, was killed during a London raid today when the bus in which she was travelling to work was djrectly hit. Three Messerschmitts dive-bombed a South-East Coast town this morning, wrecking a house and causing a number of casualties before the raiders were driven off. • Liverpool was raided several times last night and a number of high-ex-plosive and incendiary bombs fell at various points, damaging houses in working-class residential districts. There were several casualties, one of which was fatal. Another north-west town had its heaviest air raid since the outbreak of the war. There were several deaths when a block of corporation flats were hit. Some were fatally injured when a bomb hit a south-eastern emergency hospital.