Evening star., 1940-10-17
Nazis Resume
Massed Daylight
Raids on London
Hundreds Of Planes
Attack; Most Are -.
Beaten OFF
BY the Associateu Press.


LONDON, Oct. 17.-Formations Of
hundreds of warplanes attacked
England today as the Germans
switched back to the mass daylight
style of raid against London and
other areas. Five alarms had been
sounded in London late this after
noon.
Most of the German fighter
bombers were forced back by anti
aircraft fire and British planes, but
some managed to penetrate the Lon
don defenses and dropped bombs in
the capital area.
The raids started early in the
morning when 20 planes crossed the
coast near the Thames Estuary and
tried to force their way toward
London.
They we're quickly repulsed. But
few minutes later a group Of more
than 100 appeared and some of these
bombed the London area.
Formation Splits Into Waves.
Then an even larger formation
crossed the Kent coast. flying high
above the clouds. 1t split into waves,
some of which took the favored
western route inland and circled to-
wards the capital
Only short time later the sirens
in the London area shrilled out for
the fourth time since dawn as Ger
mans tried to beat off the Hurricane
and Spitfire sQuadrons patrolling
the coast. Some of them slipped
past the British guard and ap-
preached close enough to put the
London area in state of alert.
Before this reversal to mass tactics
the Nazis had been using planes
singly or in very small formations.
A few minutes after the fourth
alarm walled, AFRAID Wardens pa
trolling the streets and rooftops
whistled a shriu secondary warning,
which means raiders overhead"
In earlier attacks, NaZl airmen
who worked their way through outer
defenses dropped tons of bombs on
the so-called home counties" sur
rounding London and on the out
skirts of the capital. There were
no reports, however, of bombs fall
ing in London proper.
Next TO London, the raiders
seemed to be making their most
determined stabs at the West Eng
land coast. One coastal town re-
ported German planes overhead for
a second time shortly after lunch.
The fourth all-clear signal this
afternoon was followed at once by
reports that raider had dive
bombed section of London, demol-
ishing houses and causing some cas-
ualties. The invader made of
quickly after cleaning its bomb
rack
Within a half hour later the fifth
daylight alarm was sounded, but the
all-clear followed quickly.
Night One of Quietest.
The first of the mornings alerts,
which followed one of the quietest
nights London has had since early
September, ended quickly without
any sound Of aerial activity, but
was followed soon after by another
alarm, which also ended in a short
time.
Formations of planes could be
heard flying overhead during the
second alarm and in several Sec
tions of London the urgent danger"
signal was sounded by the whistles
of the AFRAID wardens.
A strong force of German planes
was reported crossing into England
over the Kent coast during the sec
ond alarm.
Anti-aircraft batteries opened up
on the raiders-hghter bombers-
crossing the coast as soon as they
came within range, the silver bellies
of dozens of planes glinting in the
sun.
Most of them apparently were
turned back, although a few seemed
/ to have penetrated the defenses and
/ reached London.
| Dozens of bombs, however, were
unloaded on the shopping district Of
a southeast town by y Nazi war
/ planes after a dogf1ght high above
/ the clouds Several buildings were
demolished and 10 persons were in
tured.
Other raiders were reported over
West England towns as the attacks
| famed out over a wide area.
A cold October rain seriously
hampered the operations of Nazi
airmen during the night, serving
| to give the rubble-strewn metropolis
some hours of relative peace.
| Only a few raiders succeeded in
piercing the curtain of rain and
shrapnel which protected the city,
and the others, turning away, poured
bombs on the surrounding country
side, which suffered considerably.