SEVENTH SUCCESSIVE NIGHT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 4 December 1940, Page 5

SEVENTH SUCCESSIVE NIGHT

BRISTOL BLITZ-BOMBED t]| l Nazis Admit Indiscriminate * Nature of Attack t BRAVE CIVIL DEFENCE WORKERS

(Press Association and British Official Wireless) (Received 4th December, 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, 3rd December. London was free from raiders last night till early this morning, when planes dropped a few bombs in certain districts but did little damage and caused no casualties. Last night the seventh consecutive night attack was made or Bristol. The bombing was on a fairly heavy scale from shortly after t dark till just before midnight. Several fires were started, the Air a Ministry announces, and considerable damage was done to houses t and business and commercial buildings, but the number of casual- * ties was not large. Bombs were also dropped in East Anglia, south Wales, Liverj pool and a few other places. There was little damage and only a s few casualties. i, German reports of last nights bombing of Bristol make y no attempt to disguise the fact that it was indiscriminate for a J Berlin message claims that Bristol had been “Coventrated”—a a word coined by the Germans to denote the kind of destruction r they claim to have done in Coventry. This tacit admission of ‘ the indiscriminate nature of last night’s bombing of Bristol is fully \ borne out by early reports from that town. Flares preceded the lf dropping of incendiaries and high-explosives which, as in the case - of Coventry and Southampton, caused damage to shops and “ residential premises. The fires started were efficiently and rapidly * attacked by the regular and voluntary civil defence services whose y personnel, assisted by other voluntary workers, again proved their heroism by braving the fury from the skies throughout the on-

slaught. Church premises were among those reported damaged by fire and a children’s hospital was bombed and set on fire, but all patients were successfully evacuated and all have been accounted for.

Children and nurses displayed ret markable heroism when a hospital was bombed. Nurses, some of whom were still in their teens, threw themselves £ over the children to protect them. The ] children sang and cheered as the bombs r fell round them while they were carr ried to safety. Some babies did not' s wake up despite the pandemonium. n Several persons were killed while 3 sheltering in the 'cellar of an inn, in-1 y eluding the licensee, his wife, daughter, |' e son-in-law and their baby. y • Anti-aircraft batteries drove off I" - raiders trying to penetrate another r s south-west town. Two high explosive ‘ i bombs and a hundred incendiaries were i. showered on an outlying Welsh coastal . - town last night. Fires were started but - s they were quickly extinguished. Div- ‘ ing out of the clouds the enemy dropped , i nine bombs in the London area this morning. A few minutes after a family . left for work a bomb fell directly on . their home. A single low-flying raider . bombed a London residential district. In one house a woman was blown out of bed by a bomb blast. Two policemen were gassed while rescuing people from under debris. . AFTERTHERAID l TASK OF REORGANISATION *e CARING FOR HOMELESS tle MANY PERSONS LEAVE Jt SOUTHAMPTON 1y In Southampton, which was bombed last night with apparently a the same violence as on Saturday y night, rescuers are working fever,e ishly in the darkness to remove furn ther evidence of the week-end’s > fury. Pitiable crowds of those who were rendered homeless in Southampton all ls day searched the ruins of their homes is for valuables before seeking asylum y in other areas in Hampshire. The roads d have been crowded with pilgrims. Red organisation has gone on unceasingly in ts a tremendous effort to clear the streets : and evacuate the homeless in order to i- facilitate rescue work if the Germans returned to the fray to-night. Accommodation in outgoing buses for some hours before the blackout was heavily taxed, and it became a case of women and children first. Additional buses were requisitioned and owners of private cars did their utmost to relieve the congestion. A dense fog and low, unbroken cloud blotted out the Straits of Dover tonight. There was a cold, north- easterly wind and a calm sea. it.