Intense Blitz Raid on Cardiff

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 3, 4 January 1941, Page 5

Intense Blitz Raid on Cardiff

Thousands of Incendiaries And Explosives NUMBER OF CHURCHES SET ON FIRE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received Friday, 7.20 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 2. Cardiff was “Blitzed” intensely ana for a prolonged period. However, the attack was not comparable with Coventry, iiirmingnam or Southampton. Reconnaissance machines iievv over soon after nightfall followed by uumuers using thousanas ot incendiaries anu then hign explosives, reaching blitz force. The anti-aircraft butteries put up the heaviest barrage yet heard in Yv ales. Two cinemas were badly damaged and shops, commercial buildings and houses struck. A number ot cuurches were set on lire but not extensively damaged. Later the raid spread to two other districts, while bombs were dropped in a third area. Home Guards were called ou to assist the firefighters and doience services. Telephone girls stayed at their posts and lactones continued to work whi the rumble of coal trains mingled with the bomb crashes. The casualties were slight. The ail clear ou Now Year’s night w r as sounded in the London area beiore midnight. No bombs were reported throughout tuc night. Raiders were reported in a West Mid lands town early on Thursday morning. An Air Ministry communique states: * ‘ The main enemy attack last night was directed on a South Wales town, where there was considerable damage to houses and commercial buildings. A number of fires were started, but the fire services extinguished or controlled them by early morning. A number were killed or injured. Bombs were dropped in other parts of the country, but the damage was trifling.”

Clearing of London Wreckage DANGEROUS BUILDINGS DYNAMITED LONDON, Jan. 2. The formidable task of clearing the wreckage of London has begun in oarnest. Fifteen hundred officers and men of the Royal Engineers have been drafted in to assist the pioneers and civil defence squads. Scores of dangerous buildings have been dynamited, and the demolition personnel has already achieved remarkable results. Roads almost everywhere are clear, but many side streets are still closed to the public, some being completely blocked by tons of shattered masonry. The ancient city lialls destroyed include tho Barbers f and Guild of Parish Clerks. The hall of the Barbers’ Company escaped the Great Fire in 1666, and is one of the few remaining works of Inigo Jones, the English architect who lived from 1573 to 1652. The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, which for three centuries has held a New Year’s Day service at St. Annes’ and St. Agnes’, yesterday held a service amid the ruins of the church. There were strange sights as businessmen conferred on street corners or outside burnt-out premises. Pedestrians frequently saw typists carrying on nonchalantly inside half-burned buildings.

42,300 Tons of Bombs Dropped on Britain! MODEST GERMAN FIGURES Received Friday, 8.30 p.m. BERLIN, Jan. 2. Tho German High Command, in a half-yearly review, states that the Luftwaffe made 2000 raids on Britain between August 8 and December 31 and dropped 42,300 tons of high explosives and 1500 tons of incendiaries. The weight of bombs dropped in Britain was 25 times that dropped in Germany in the same period. One hundred and thirty raids have be-en carried out against Britain since May 10, of which 100 were against London. R.A.F. plane losses were threefold those of Germany’s. The High Command claims that the Germans since June sank 12 enemy destroyers, eight submarines, nine auxiliary cruisers, three gunboats, and lost three torpedo-boats, five minesweepers, eight submarines and 12 smaller craft. 3,900,000 tons of enemy merchantmen were sunk in the same period and 264 mrrehantmon with a tonnage of over 2,000,000 damaged.