TIP-AND-RUN RAID

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 320, 8 October 1940, Page 1

TIP-AND-RUN RAID

GERMAN MARAUDERS AID OF LOW CLOUD LONDON BID CHECKED (News by Cable.) LONDON, Oct. 6. Tip-and-run raiders, taking advantage of low cloucl, were active early to-day. Several crossed the coast heading for London, but were turned back by anti-aircraft fire before reaching the centre of the city. Bombs are reported to have'been dropped in the south-western and south-eastern districts. A few minutes before the first alert signal in the London area this morning British fighters intercepted enemy planes over the north-west area. Single raiders were over the outskirts of London again in the afternoon. When a salvo of seven bombs were dropped in the east of London early this morning one struck a tunnel of a public shelter in which many people had been, sheltering all night and killed three women and two men.

The Air Ministry news service says that a Canadian ait’ force squadron and also Poles participated in yesterday’s air battles over Kent. One Polish squadron destroyed eight Messerschmitts. Indiscriminate Bombing The weather conditions to-day favoured indiscriminate bombing from above low clouds and reports, from unofficial sources that this was largely the work of lone raiders is borne out by the following A.ir Ministry and Ministry of Home Security communique: “During to-day enemy aircraft, flying singly or in small formations, made attacks on a number of places in Jbhe south-east of England and in the London area. A few bombs were dropped in the East Midlands and East Anglia. At Folkestone and a town in Northamptonshire high explosive bombs demolished some houses and caused a small number of casualties, some of which Avere fatal. At several other places enemy aircraft dived from the clouds, delivered short bursts of machine-gun fire and quickly flew off. A few persons were injured as a result of these attacks. “Elsewhere, though bombs fell in a number of widely-separated places, little damage was caused and thfe number of casualties was small. The weather conditions made interception by our fighters difficult, but reports so far received show that one enemy bomber was shot down.”