Evening star., 1940-09-30

British airport at Hastings to-
day. the official German news
agency reported, smashing or
burning two hangers and filling
runways so full of holes that the
field was made useless.
Ry the Associated Press
LONDON, Sept. 30.-Nazi war
planes. coming over with gradually
increasing strength, smashed again
and again at London's defenses to-
day as British claimed to have made
new smashing blows at Germany
war machine in wlde-ranging raids
last night over Germany and the
Nazi-held coast.
The new Nazi raiders ran into a
continuous thunder of anti-aircraft
fire and roaring dogfights with
Britain's swift fighter planes.
The British Air Ministry, in oe-
scribing the action last night, said
a chain of flercely burning fires was
left in factories as the result of the
raids. which lasted almost three
hours.
. lighting Today in Fog.
The action today took place in a
haze of fog. The British declared
they had turned back most of the
thrusts, downing at least II Ger
man planes. But the fourth main
drive of the day. in which a force
of 1870 Nazi planes took part, pene-
trated to the outskirts of London.
Although the main body was bro
ken up, said the British Air Minis
try, few planes dropped bombs in
London's western suburbs, causing
casualties and damage
The Nazi raiders swarmed inland
from the Channel coast from dawn
until early evening.
Battle Over London.
British fighters fought a Slashing
Commute battle with German raid
ers above cloud-shrouGed London
today which ended when the NaZi
planes streaked off to the south.
-Four large-scale attacks on the
south and southeast of England were
reported by an Air Ministry COM
munique which said British fighters
and anti-aircraft defenses have been
constantly in action" throughout the
Gay
Unofficial reports said three Of
the II planes shot down were in the
areas of OXted, GodStone and Tad
worth, in Surrey, south of London,
and another in the Ealing district Of
Western London.
The raiders were engaged heavily
over Surveys rolling countryside
The plane which crashed near Tad
worth came down in flames after a
long burst of machine-gun fire.
Account of Reich Fighting.
The Air Ministry gave this ac-
count of the fighting over German
territory. experimenting its commu-
nique's bare announcement OF the
r. A. F.'s objectives:
Fires, followed by explosions
which could be seen by aircraft
crews so miles away. marked heavy
attack on an oil refinery and storage
plant at Magdeburg. carried out last
night by aircraft of the bomber
command.
"A plant known as Braunkohlen
BENIN A. G., situated 200 miles in
land from Germany's western from
tier. was subjected to series Of
raids which began shortly after IL
pm, and continued for nearly three
hours.
Ground haze over the city and
the glare of many searchlights ham
pered bomber crews in the early
stages of the attack, but later the
many fires started by incendiary
bombs illuminated the target and
guided following aircraft directly to
their objective.
Attacking in shallow dives, and
often from low level, the raiders
straddled the oil plant with high eX-
plosive bombs. leaving a trail OF
multi-colored fires and Spasmodic
explosions in their wake. AS one Of
the raiding aircraft climbed away
from the target after releasing its
bombs in a shallow dive. the rear
gunner poured burst from his ma
chine guns into the blazing target.
Fires Blaze Still Higher.
Late arrivals. adding their quota
of bombs TO fires already raging, saw
them blaze up still more fiercely and
spread across the target area.
Raiders taking part in this at
tack also bombed the railway at the
southern exit cf the city and started
fires close 10 the main line junction.
Meanwhile. at Stuttgart, 260 miles
away in Western Germany. other
forces of heavy bombers were
launching attacks against large
coal gas plant and the Bosch factory.
(See LONDON, Page "A.