ATTACKS ON BRITAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 141, 16 May 1941, Page 5

ATTACKS ON BRITAIN

LITTLE ACTIVITY. (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 10.20 a.m.; RUGBY, May 16. Regarding enemy activity over Britain last night, an official communique states there is nothing to report. Two enemy aircraft have been shot down by British fighters to-day. It is now known that one enemy aircraft was destroyed off the coast last night. An official communique states there has been some activity by enemy aircraft in coastal areas to-day. Bombs were dropped at several points but there was little damage and no casual-1 ties. One enemy bomber was shot down! by our fighters over Britain to-day. j DAMAGKU BUILDINGS.

. It is revealed that Lambeth Palace, I Queen's Hall, St. James's Palace, St. : Clement Danes and the Old Bailey were i damaged in the recent raids. The international headquarters of t lie Salvation Army were destroyed, with most of the records. The London Philharmonic Orchestra lost thousands of pounds' worth of, instruments at Queen's Hall. The Old Bailey, at which two porteis were killed, was damaged for the third time since the war began. It is revealed also that the Liverpool Technical College, the public library, museum and other buildings have been damaged in air raids. It can now be revealed that a b=g time bomb came down in Fleet Street in I the recent raid a few yards from the i Australian Associated Press office | which with the ijighbouring buildings I has been temporarily evacuated. Damage by 'bombs to Westminster [School includes the destruction of the i 200-year-old dormitory where the | King's scholars slept and where the j historic Latin play took place every December.

TASK OF NTGHT FIGHTERS (British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, May 14. The Minister of Home Security, (Mr. Morrison), in a speech in London, referring to the progress made by the night fighters, said: "We do not umkvra

te their task. 'lt seems to us that night interception must be iike trying to swat a fl.v in a large dark room at midnight with a small fly-swatter and in the knowledge that maybe the fly is not there anyway.

"Vet there have been great achievements. I am to!d that research and development have gone as far in this last ten mouths as they would have done in ten years of normal peacetime, so tluit to-day those who know best think that in night interception we arc rather more than a shade ahead of the enemy. There has been good progress in moonlight interception, and some progress even on dark nights. "Yet we must beware of jumping to I conclusions too easily or setting our] hopes too high or counting on their | fulfilment too soon. But the significant | tiling is the steady and consistent risel in the curve of victories since the dark times of the winter."

The story of how a Spitfire which was presented to the Fighter Command by members of the Royal Observer Corps accounted in various engagements for three Messerschmitt 109's before it was destroyed recently in a fight against odds, i's told by, the Air Ministry. Flown first by the squadron's commanding officer, it shot down its first victim from 2000 ft out of a group of nine, two davs later it got another over the sea off Dover, and subsequently, with another pilot, it sent down its third victim. Finally, when attacked by superior numbers, it ended its short but effective career in the sea. The pilot was rescued.