HEAVY BOMBING OF LONDON

Southland Times, Issue 24260, 18 October 1940, Page 5

HEAVY BOMBING OF LONDON

London on Tuesday night again experienced intense bombing. According tn Press observations, a succession of enemy planes, as on the previous night, flew in from the east and north-east and, circling over London to the west, later made off in the direction of the south and south-west.

The great height at which some raiders flew was indicated by the socalled smoke trails traced by the planes against a clear sky, brilliantly lighted by a “hunter’s moon.” Incendiary and high-explosive bombs were showered on the capital. The heavy hum of aircraft engines suggested that a mass raid was in progress. The raiders met terrific salvos of gunfire and two enemy bombers are known to have been destroyed. Hundreds of tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs hit the capital. It was a horrific night for those still believing that the discomforts underground are the greater of the two terrors and stayed above the surface. The raiders made whole districts their tar-getsf-Consequently the majority of the bombs achieved little direct military importance. DIRECT HIT ON SHELTER London had three brief “alerts” today. Heavy casualties are feared as the result of a direct hit on a large and crowded underground shelter in London this morning. A goods train and a platelayer’s gang were machine-gunned in the Midlands, but no one was injured. Last night a famous London square was reduced to a heap of twisted frames and dusty debris. At least eight motor-cars were shattered. One, a mere mass of twisted metal parts, was flung through adjacent windows. Many were sheltering in buildings around the square, but there were fewer than a dozen casualties. A famous church was severely damaged. Gaping holes were torn in the sides of tenements and blocks of flats, hospitals and some shopping and business areas were cut off by debris. The heaviest casualities of the night were suffered "when a heavy calibre bomb completely destroyed a school which many were using for shelter. Four other schools were damaged. Two policemen

were killed while on duty in the London area.

A family of five, consisting of a man, his wife and their three children, perished when an Anderson shelter was directly hit. Twenty boys were trapped when a hostel was demolished. Seventeen of the boys were subsequently rescued, but the hostel chaplain and the superintendent, with his wife and two children, are all feared to have been killed. Raiders, guided by a large fire in a furniture repository, rained down 26 high explosive bombs on doctors, nurses and Air Raid Precautions workers, of whom several were killed. The rescuers continued their work, disregarding their terrible danger. SEVERAL HOUSES WRECKED A large bomb wrecked several houses from which Air Raid Precautions workers were still extricating those trapped in the afternoon. Two firemen were buried while extricating a man. Charles Goodyear, killed by a bomb which destroyed part of an industrial premises in London, gave his life for his comrades. The firm’s fire brigades were dealing with several incendiary bombs when Mr Goodyear, hearing highexplosive bombs falling, ran about blowing his whistle to ensure that everyone should get under cover. A bomb buried him under the wreckage of the building.

“The faces of the crews were

radiant as everyone had a grand experience,” says the Berlin News Agency in describing the return of

the Luftwaffe raiders from London.

“The Luftwaffe gives no quarter,” says the agency, in citing examples of annihilated Warsaw, destroyed Rotterdam and the devastation of Dunkirk. “It is often asked how long will it be before London meets the same fate. The impression of a fire in London last night is indescribable. Supply systems are paralysed for a long time to come.” That is what Berlin thinks. Londoners went to work this morning much the same as usual. The majority still had jobs to go to and they tackled them with the same unshaken resolve. London is still London.