ANOTHER NINE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 138, 13 May 1941, Page 5

ANOTHER NINE

NAZI BOMBER LOSSES. RECORD TOTAL SWELLING. LONDON,s May 12. In air raids on Britain last night nine enemy bombers were brought down, making 133 for May to date, this being 43 more than the previous record monthly total of night bombers set up in April.

The raids were widespread, ranging from the north-east to South Wales, but damage was not heavy.

Mr Churchill and other Ministers to-dav inspected the damage done in Saturday night’s raid to the House of Commons. Despite the destruction of the debating chamber the House will meet on the next appointed sitting day, other /accommodation already having been arranged.

NAZI LOSSES. German losses during night raiding since the beginning of 1941 have been:— January 33 February 15 March 47 April 99 May (so far) 133 Total 300 GOOD WORK BY R.A.F. (Britisli Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 12. In Saturday night’s raid by the Luftwaffe one Hurricane squadron destroyed six enemy machines, three of which fell to a' Czech sergeant-pilot who made three patrols during the night and shot down one bomber on each. Here arc extracts from the reports ol Saturday night's fighter pilots: “As my bullets struck Jiomo the Heinkel was hidden' by a shower of red sparks. 1 attacked again. A large explosion occurred inside the raider's iu.selage and he went straight down.” This pilot lias on four occasions destroyed two raiders in a single night. The pilot of a two-seater lighter which caught a Heinkel 111 over London reported: “After our second attack the bomber caught fire and made a spiral descent. Then a searchlight caught us both as we saw two of the Heinkel’s crew bale out. Their machine burst into flames as it hit the ground. “Opened fire, enemy aircraft burst into flames and large pieces broke off, enemy aircraft crashed, lime 0305, was the laconic report of a wing-com-mander. A sergeant-pilot who set another Heinkel on fire with his first burst found his cockpit enveloped in black smoke from the burning bomber, which subsequently burst into flames and spun down out of control. Another pilot who chased a raider back across the Channel shot it down into the sea off the French coast. One pilot-officer watched two combats below him and saw tracer bullets hit a bomber. Suddenly tracer bullets began to flash over his own cockpit. Turning quickly, he saw an 'enemy bomber approaching him. He swung into position and from very close range made an attack which sent the enemy down out of control.

His flight-commander, over London at the'same time, attacked another bomber which went into a steep lefthand turn and then dived down with smoke pouring from it. A high tribute was paid by this pilot to the work of the ground crews. “They are magnificent,” he said. “I have never seen such enthusiasm in all my life. They refuelled and rearmed one machine after another with only the light of the moon and an occasional torch to help them.”

HEROISM SAVES ABBEY. LONDON, May 11. An official of Westminster Abbey said that the building was saved from total destruction by the heroism ot firemen and fire-watchers in Saturday night’s raid. The walks in the Abbey cloisters are flooded, but the cloisters, like the rest ot the fabric of the Abbey, are undamaged. Surface injury has been done to the Chapel of Henry VII., but the general structure is intact.

There were casualties at throe hospitals. A number of people were injured when an hotel was hit, and there were casualties at a shelter, a rest centre, an air-raid warden’s post, and at a London market where people were trapped. A night club, a cinema, and a theatre were also struck by bombs. The fires were so extensive that fragments of paper and ashes were carried into the country areas 20 miles away. Crowds of sightseers, walking in an endless procession throughout the day among the damaged streets, hindered the civil defence workers and endangered their own lives. Several were injured, some seriously, by masonry from tottering buildings. Most came from the suburbs.

The morbidly curious crowded out the lew restaurants which were open and kept out men and women who had been fighting the flames all night and overburdened the transport services. Some even toured the bombed areas in taxis. Several streets, though not dangerous, were roped off to allow the defence workers to carry on. A civil deience official said there were even cases of sightseers from the suburbs gate-crashing the free food kitchens put up for people bombed out of their homes.

AERODROMES ATTACKED

(Rec. 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, May 12. The German night bombers extensively attacked a large number ot R.A.F. aerodromes, but “except at one or two points” the damage was not considerable. A Berlin message says; The Luftwaffe, with the object of spiking the increasingly heavy R.A.F. raids on Germany, pounded 20 British airports last night, including many from which long-range craft take off.

PRE-INVASION PLAN ?

(Rec. 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, May 12. The Mayor of Westminster (Mr Eaton Smith) was killed and the Polish Vice-Premier (M. Sosnokowski) injured in the hack and neck m Saturday night’s raid. The American United Press correspondent in London says many persons in Britain believe the Luftwaffe’s persistent and widespread attacks on the R.A.F. may precede a Gentian invasion attempt and that operations arc now entering Hie pre-invasion phase.