AIR OFFENSIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24448, 6 November 1940, Page 7

AIR OFFENSIVE

THE RAIDS ON BRITAIN WIDESPREAD ATTACKS DAMAGE IN MIDLAND TOWN (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 4 (Received Nov. 5. at 11.30 p.m.) The Germans carried out raids throughout Britain to-night (Monday), including Scotland, Wales and the Midlands. A Heinkgl, just before darkness, machine-gunned a southeastern town from 300 ffeet, but (here were no casualties. Another Heinkel harmlessly bombed a southeastern village. Three single raiders dropped about 50 bombs on a south-east coast town, with broken windows the only damage. High explosives damaged houses in a Midland town, trapping four people. The Air Ministry reports that only a few planes crossed the coasts on Sunday night. Their activities were confined to north-east England and east Scotland, where bombs were dropped shortly after dark. There were no casualties, but slight damage resulted. In a second attack on east Scotland early, in the morning explosives demolished some tenements. A small number were killed and injured. Many people who had been in the habit of sleeping on camp beds in basments and landings decided to take a chance and enjoy their first night’s sleep for weeks in their own soft beds. People in the deepest shelters were surprised on emerging in the morning to hear of the peaceful night. ■ The Daily Mai] says it is believed that rain storms, gales and thick ground mists rendered unserviceable the aerodromes from which the German bombers operate.

ABSENCE OF NEUROSIS BOMBED CIVILIANS HARD WORK AS ANTIDOTE LONDON, Oct. 21. Work seems to be the best antidote to bomb-shock, judged from the experiences of military and civilian doctors in south-eastern England, which has been more or less a frontline for several months. Shellshock and war neurosis, so numerous in the last war, are now extremely rare, says a special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, who made a survey in this field. He quotes a doctor in charge of one of the principal casualty hospitals as saying that he has encountered only two cases.

One was a soldier continuously shelled in the retreat to Dunkirk and again on the beach, and the other a young soldier who had been twice bombed on sentry duty. “Although refusing to express a final opinion,” says the correspondent, “ many doctors explain the scarcity of shellshock compared with the last war as due to civilians and troops all working hard. In 1914-18 men were subjected to prolonged bombardment in the trenches with nothing else to occupy their minds. “Another probable factor is that the wars in China, Abyssina, Poland and Spain prepared civilians for the shock of modern war.”