The Wilmington morning star., 1940-08-26

a Nazi squadron ATTEMPTED to
cross the Dorset coast 'in force"
With four British planes admit.
tedly missing today, their own
losses rose to % for the weekend
out the air ministry communicate
said the crews of all but eight
British planes - eve Saturday
and one Sunday-were safe.
Berlins' Figures
Qn Berlin, however, authorita-
tive sources said only "a Nazi
planes were lost for both days
~ Saturday and four Sunday
against a total Of IS British planes
shot down.
The new Nazi air assaults came,
as London extinguished the en-
bers and cleared the debris from
Saturdays first widespread night
air raid on tn metropolitan rea
Although n blaze in the heart
OF London shot flames $50 feet into
the air, silhouetting the great dome
of St. Paur's cathedral and illum-
mating a large area of the city,
the damage was assessed official
ly as very slight"
Defenders stood ready to repel
any new Nazi air attack on this
capital of empire but the. Germans
contented themselves during the
daylight hours with isolated sor-
ties on other parts of England and
Wales.
After another seeming lull in
Germany's luftwaffe war, howev-
er, the attack intensified after
n1ghtfall with a first wave of so
German planes reported over the
southeast coast. The Nazi bomb
r started several first but dam
age was said to have been slight.
Anti-aircraft batteries went into
action along with Royal Air Force
planes. l
Another Battle
Another battle was reported to-
night over the southeast coast and
two Nazi Messerschmitts were
said to have been S h down.
Shortly afterward, planes believed
to be German were reported over
Wales and another southwestern
English region.
British bombers, meanwhile,
carried out extensive night bomb
ing assignments Saturday against
Germany and Italy, again rouslng
Swiss ire for crossing over Swift
erland to and from their Italian
detectives.
Frankfurt, Ludwigshaven and
Stuttgart, as well as many air
dromes in France, Belgium, Hol-
land and Germany" we're men
toned in an air ministry communi-
que as targets of the British light
raiders.
A later air ministry statement
added that for the third successive
night, British bombers also had
attacked German long-range gun
positions around Cape Girls Nez
and that coastal command aircraft
had spotted" for British artillery
firing against Nazi gun emplace-
ments between Boulogne and Ca
lais, or the French channel coast.
At Ludwigshave, it said, the
British bombers scored several
hts on a nitrogen pplant and OBJ
served heavy explosions. Several
small fires broke out also after an
attack on a synthetic oil plant at
Frankfurt, it reported, and anoth-
er fire after bombs dropped on an
electric power station n e Co.
logne.
Besides 20 Nazi-occupied air
dromes in Holland, Belgium and
France, it said, British filters also
raided an airdrome under con-
struction in the Dutch city of Haar-
lem.
In the attacks on Germany, it
said, the Daimler-Benz plant at
Stuttgart, lone of the most i'm
portant armament a n d armored
car factories in western Germa-
was ''methodically" bombed
for more than an hour.
Fire soon broke out, as more
bombs fell, and spread rapidly un-
til the main group of buildings
was seen to be blazing" it added.
LAS the flames spread, a series of
explosions w a S observed.
One of the biggest explosions of
all occurred 10 minutes after the
aircraft had left for home and
fires still burning ~fiercely in many
parts of the plant were visible
from go miles away" l