MIDLANDS BOMBED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23968, 19 May 1941, Page 8

MIDLANDS BOMBED

DAMAGE TO PEOPEKTY

CASUALTIES NOT HEAVY

TOLL TAKEN OF RAIDERS

(Reed. 0.30 p.m.) LONDON, May IS Enemy air activity over Britain on Saturday night was on a very small scale. Bombs were dropped on one or two points in the east of England, little damage being caused. German raiders concentrated their main attack on Friday night on a town in the West Midlands, stated by Germany to be Birmingham. Severe damage was done to property, although casualties are believed to have been light. The Germans also attacked an East Midlandsl town and an area in southern England. Three bombers were brought down. A public shelter was directly hit in the West .Midlands, resulting in a number of casualties. Explosive bombs foil over a wide area in an East. Anglian town, destroying and damaging homes of workers, many of whom refused to quit while one room was habitable. There was enemy activity off tho east coast in daylight on Saturday, says a British official wireless message. Small formations of enemy aircraft crossed the coast, but did not fly inland. An enemy fighter was destroyed off the south coast. Enemy aircraft crossing the southeast. coast on Friday afternoon wore promptly met by strong forces of fighters, which beat them back. Eight enemy fighters were destroyed, five by fighters and three by anti-aircraft gunfire. One British fighter was lost, but the pilot is safe. The German news agency says over 100 aeroplanes bombed industrial works and utility services in Birmingham on Friday night for three hours. Four of the biggest bombs were dropped on Barrow-in-Furness and must have caused tremendous havoc. Other bombers attacked a number of aerodromes by day and niglit. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES GOOO KILLED IN APRIL BRITISH AIR RAID VICTIMS HEAVY ENEMY BOMBER LOSSES (Rocd. 0.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 17 Tho Ministry of Home Security announced tho following figures for civilian casualties during air raids on the United Kingdom in April, says a British official wireless message:— Killed, 6065. comprising 2912 men, 2418 women, 680 children under 16 and 55 unclassified. Injured and detained in hospital, 6926, comprising 3659 men, 2748 women, and 519 children under 16. In addition 61 persons are missing and believed killed, of whom 48 are men, six women and seven children. New York newspapers give prominence to this announcement and couple the. news with an appeal for further action by the United States to help the cause of democracy. Commenting on the fact that nearly half this toll was composed of woihen and children, "Mr. Cyril Lakin said in a broadcast that this was air war on civilians with a vengeance. The figures invited comparison with the relatively few soldiers lost in Greece in the same period. Germany had lost 291 aeroplanes and about 1100 men between April 1 and May 10, he said. The British had lost 126 aeroplanes and about 560 men in the same period. Showing tho efficiency of British defences he pointed out that in night attacks in this period Germany had lost 214 bombers in comparison with 76 lost by Britain, although attacks by both sides were on about the same scale. On one week of moonlight nights the figures were 102 German and 24 British machines lost. In spite of the air raid casualties some comfort could bo taken from the greater losses caused by our airmen and pyschologicallv this was bound to tell in the long run. ABBEY CARRIES ON SERVICES AS USUAL HELP' FOR WESTMINSTER (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 17 The usual services are to be held in Westminster Abbey to-morrow. They will be held in the nave. Most of the debris has been cleared. The Dean of Westminster, the lit. Rev. F. P. D. de Labilliere, said: "We are not going to be blasted from worship by Hitler." Offers to assist in restoring the buildings ,destroyed at Westminster during the recent raids come from Oxford and Australia, says a British official wireless message. The Oxford Union has offered the Speaker of the House of Commons, Captain E. A. Fitzßoy, its despatch boxes to replace those destroyed. The Oxford boxes are 118 years old and were used by Gladstone and Peel when they went to Oxford. All Souls College has offered the actual Speaker's chair used by Lord Colchester, Speaker from 1802 to 1817. Senator 11. S. Foil, Australian Minister of the Interior, announced that huge beams of Australian hardwood were to be offered by tho Government on behalf of tho people of Australia to help repair the roof of Westminster Hall. Although the actual work cannot be undertaken until the end of the war an earlier start will be made on fashioning the timbers if tho offer is accepted. YEARS OF LABOUR LOST HOSPITAL BUILT A MONTH A Roman Catholic hospital for the poor, built in Lambeth Road after years of labour to raise tho necessary funds, was razed in a recent air raid, within a month of its opening. Bombs killed the Mother Superior and two senior sisters while they wero dealing with incendiary bombs. Tho surviving sisters are living in an indicated basement under tho ruins of the hospital. WOMEN IN AIR FORCE EXTENSION OF ACTIVITIES LONDON, May 16 The degree to which woman power is swinging into the war effort is illustrated by tho decision to train selected memhers of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force as flight mechanics and riggers for Royal Air Force squadrons, enabling the release of men employed in maintenance and repair crews, says the Times' aeronautical correspondent. It is intended to experiment with tho employment of women on balloon barrages and the skilled job of parachute packing, and it is also proposed to employ women as instrument repairers, electricians and radio operators. FIVE GERMANS ESCAPE LONDON, May 10 Five German prisoners of war, penetrating a thick barbed-wire fence, last night escaped from a camp in the north-west of England. So far they have not been captured,