Evening star., 1940-08-24

but traffic was kept moving.
During the prolonged coastal she'll
ing, numerous dogfights developed
over the Channel and a British
Spitflre downed German Messer-
schmitt, apparently "spotting" for
the German guns across from Dover.
The plane plunged into the sea near
the English shore.
The downed Messerschmitt toppled
crafty, narrowly missing the jut-
ting headland between Dover and
Folkstone. Preliminary government
reports said three other craft had
been downed.
Blast Starts Bombardment.
A violent explosion at 10 am in
the area where shells fell during
Thursday nights German lombard
ment of Dover heralded the begin
ming of today's shelling.
The roar of the blast scarcely had
died when British naval guns set up
on the shore began firing at Ger
man positions across the sunlit
Channel.
The counterfire of the British bat
teries died as anti-aircraft guns
and then British fighters went into
action against German fighters and
bombers crossing the coast. Three
of the German shells landed on the
south Kent coast near Dover, killing
woman and injuring several per-
sons.
Meanwhile German planes began
coming over at about l0-minute in
tervals. They headed inland and
soon there was the distant sound
Of bomb explosions, coming so close
together they sounded almost like
continual rumble.
The detonations bounced off the
hillsides, echoing and re-echoing, to
the sharp chatter of machine guns
firing in the dog-fghts so high over
head the combatants could be seen
only when they dived.
Few Night Casualties.
During the night attacks, de-
scribed by the Air Ministry as "on
a smaller scale than heretofore" I"
there were few casualties and some
houses damaged in an East Anglia
town.
A factory home guard unit dis
closed two parachutes, which ap-
parently had not been manned,
were found in the Midlands after
last nights raid.
Some 80 parachutes were found in
the Midlands and other areas of
England and Scotland August IA,
but widespread search failed to find
any parachutists and the dropping
Of empty parachutes was described
here as a German hoax" designed
to affect civilian morale.
So far there has been no official
Nazi claim that parachutists had
been dropped in this country, al
though a German radio announcer,
heard here Tuesday, declared para
chutists actually had been landed
and were being sheltered by fifth
columnists.
British authorities now are con-
sidering a reply to recent German
note declaring that reprisals would
be taken against captured British
aviators if British civilians killed
German parachutists.
1t was understood the official Brit
ish view would be that parachutists
either are dropped as spies or uni
formed soldiers and that the Ger
man government cannot have 1t
both ways"
Incendiary Bombs LOosed.
Hard to trap as a result of the
Nazi strategy of sending over raid
ers singly or in small squadrons, the
bombers rained between 200 and 300
incendiary bombs on one area alone,
while high explosive and incendiary
bombs were loosed elsewhere on
midlands town.
A report that the high explosive
missiles fell near the post office,
damaging property, was the only
hint that the bombs might have
landed near the heart of the town.
r. A. F. fighter planes were reported
to have gone into action.
The German raiders continued
their foray after daylight, flying
over Wales. Before dawn bombers
dropped two bombs on a working
class housing area in Wales, partly
wrecking four houses. There were
a few casualties, none fatal.
Earlier this morning lone raider
circled a Midland town for about
half an hour, and eight explosions
were heard before it few out of the
range of defense searchlights. Single
Nazi bombers flying at intervals over
a Southwest England town drew
anti-aircraft fire, while in a south
west rural area small fires were
started by bombs dropped in wheat
fields.
Defense batteries of a town in the
west of England were In acton
through the night. One raider,
caught in the searchlight beams,
lurched as if hit when anti-aircraft
shells burst all around it, one almost
on the tail Of the plane.
Incendiary bombs dropped In the
towns residential district started
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