N0T DELIBERATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 68, 21 March 1940, Page 5

N0 T DELIBERATE

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN SCAPA FLOW RAID OPINION IN BRITAIN Received March ? .. 9.5 p.m. LONDON, March 20. The real difference between Saluray’j; va d and those preceding it," aid Mr. Chamberlain, arrin • his Comnons speech, ”wns that : was the irst attack made on land.” Halifax, in the Jlou.-e of Lords =aid: “I do no: think on the information that it would be true to say hat there was a dclib* ate aitark or Hvi Ilans as such.” Photographs of the village Bridge ’• Waith showing one cottage com>leteiy demolishe I and a bomb crater vithin, a short distance of another, vith the windows blown out by th*. )!ast. provide an incontestable answer o the Nazi statements that the •ivilian casualties in SaturdavN air aid war caused by British anti-air-raft gunfire. It has not been suggested here that he Nazi raiders deliberately attacked nvilians. There is no doubt in British java! and air circles that the Nazi nrmation wa broken up by the inensity of th ■ British anti-aircraft ire. described by German pilots as Hell let loose." The raiders were orced to range over 100 square miles >f wild Scottish countryside dropping mmbs. obviously without knowledge >f what they were hitting. It is fully ealised that a blind chance caused i : mall portion of the bombs dropped o fall on on*’ of the few inhabited arts of the sparsely populated area, ••at there is no possible doubt that ihose casualties were caused by German airmen who were some miles *?y from their declared objective.