STREETS BOMBED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 281, 26 October 1940, Page 7

STREETS BOMBED

RUTHLESS HUN PILOTS. ATTACKS ON BRITAIN. (United Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 11 a.m.) LUJNDON, Uct./ZO London had five alerts during the day, including two while people were going to work. One raider dive-bombed 2000 ft and released bombs. Some houses were damaged and five persons were injured in one house.

The blue sky over London became a battlefield for whirling planes during the third alert, which lasted only a few minutes, but bombs fell in several parts. Buses were brought to a standstill shaivply and passengers hurried to flic shelters and emerged soon afterwards to find several buildings shattered.

iSeveral persons were buried under the wreckage of a block of shops and flats which received the brunt of a stick of three hjgh explosives. There wero calls for doctors to attend those injured in the streets. FIVE TRAMS STRUCK.

Buses in some districts were caught in the raid. The conductor of one was injured. A bomb directly hit a row of five trams, killing and maiming several passengers. One tram was completely flattened. Further brief raids followed, the Germans using fighter-bombers. The attacks began, and ended with • great suddenness.

Women tore off their clothing to provide bandages for the injured during one street bombing. A mother and three children were buried when a bomb demolished a house in a Home County. They were heard calling for help and were dug out and taken to hospital. Boml>s -were heard again during the fifth alert in the afternoon.

An Air Ministry communique states: There was comparatively little enemy activity over the country last night. Fires in one Midlands town damaged commercial property and public buildings. A few people wero killed and a number injured. There were some bombs elsewhere, mainly in Southeast England. To assist London's public transport facilities to operate even more effectively during air raids the Transport Board has arranged for road "spotters" to be stationed at 123 points on London roads, and they will assist and advise bus drivers whether or not to continue their journeys-. 12 NAZI PLANES DOWN.

Announcing at 6 o'clock the destruction, according to reports then available, of 12 enemy aircraft, the Air Ministry stated that formations of enemy aircraft, mostly lighters, j ranging in size from twenty to a hundreu, crossed the South-East Coast at intervals during the day. They flew at a great height in the direction of Loudon, and British fighters and antiaircraft defences were constantly in action. In the destruction of the 12 German aircraft eiglit R.A.F. fighters were lost, but five of the pilots are safe. Jointly with the Ministry of Home Security", the Air Ministry stated that althougn most of the lormations were split up and dispersed a few succeeded in reaching the London area, and l>ombs have been dropped at a number of widely separated points in this area and in South-East England. Some houses were hit and a small number of people were killed and others injured.

CHANNEL BATTLE,

PLANES AND GUNS ACTIVE.

LONDON, Oct. 25. A Channel battle, in which aircraft and artillery were engaged, took place to-night in the Dover area. It commenced when the German long-range guns opened fire on a British convoy. The British guns replied, and bombers streaked across the Channel and plastered the enemy gun positions. A mass attack on the convoy followed, and bombers took part in a battle' over the Channel. Watchers saw great sheets of flame and searchlights criss-crossing along the French coast.

BRITISH PLANE TYPES

RAPID ADVANCE MADE

LONDON, Oct. 24'. Air-Marshal Sir Philip Joiibert, in a broadcast, predicted a swift advance in the deadliness of British planes and oarlv increased numbers. Smtfires -And Hurricanes were being made faster and the armament was improving, but the new types on the stocks would be as great an advance on tJieni as the Spitfires originally were on the earlier types. The Boulton-Paul Defiants would again be used for wglit fighting • for which they were originally intended and soon might be harrying the German night raiders. "One of the most satisfactory features is.the increase in our bombing effort," said Sir Philip. "Recently we were able to strike in one night Berlin, the Ruhr, the invasion ports, and also big industrial cities in Northern Italy. These attacks achieved important successes.

"We can hope henceforth steadily to increase our pressure against Germany and Italy and by the spring, whan the flow of • American planes has become a flood, we will return to Germany with sevenfold interest all the bombing we have been forced to endure." The accuracy of German night bombing was certain to deteriorate when visibility was bad. Accurate shelJfire was upsetting the morale of the pilots and bomb-aimers. Tin's particularly applied at 'present because of the great height at which the German bombers were forced to ;'ly. Jt was known that they had to operate over London at at least 14,000 ft and were forced most of tho time to take violent evasive action.