The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-09
WAVES OF GERMAN
PLANES CONTINUE
RAIDS ON LONDON
CONTINUED from Page One)

not yet reached the top note Of this
crescendo of air attack"
Many Killed
Even 50, the great raid was &C.
knowledged as the equal in ferocity
Of that which killed 400 and manned
!, 300 to. 1,4oo persons in the be-
sieged capital Saturday night,
The air ministry official, calling
this Undoubtedly a very critical
month of the war;" admitted, "even
if we had four times as many or
even greater proportion Of fighters,
it would still be impossible to pre-
vent some Of the bombers from
reaching the capital"
Some French planes were used in
the attack, an air ministry official
said.
Authoritative quarters reported
that from the types of planes shot
down Saturday night, it was known
that the, Germans made large con-
centrations Of airpower in northern
France to carry out mass raids on
London.
For example, they said, some of
the destroyed planes were known,
to have bee n%operating recently in
Norway. They did not disclose
how they knew.
Single Raiders '
Single raiders started coming
owe London again as the early
morning hours wore on. They
made a circular, clockwise run
around London from the east after
approaching up the Thames
Estuary. Bombs were dropped at
opposite points of the compass.
The homeless and the bereaved,
poor and rich, men, women and
children, huddled in air raid shell
tiers as the German bombers swept
over the capital, roaring up from
the Thames Estuary with their
deadly loads.
They came first at twilight after
a day of scattered fighting along
the coast north of Dover.
On through the dark hours the
Germans drove in, seemingly in
greater numbers than the esti-
mated 700 attackers of Saturday
They came through drifting
clouds from which occasional fork
ed tongues of lightning darted, and
between which the wan sickle of
a new moon was occasionally
Two barrage balloons plum
meted down in flames, apparently
by lightning.
The streets of the great city
were empty save for fire trucks
and mbulances and an occasional
night worker who had.t to walk to
his job.
Some managed to travel part
way by subway. Trainmen quiet
ly shepherded passengers in and
out of the cars.
Ports Bombed
A bulletin declaring that threat
of invasion by sea was offset by
British bombing Of chan
mel ports Saturday night was is.
sued by the air ministry news
service.
Enemy threats of invasion by
the e were countered Saturday
by a series of air attacks on
channel ports during which extern
sive damage to shipping and har-
Dor installations was inflicted by
aircraft Of the bomber command
said the bulletin.
The noise of German raidins
planes reced and the bombing ap-
parently died down this morning
some time after midnight. In the
later stages of the raid the Ger
mans seemed to be operating sing
~ and in small groups, in contrast
10 tnelr I1rSt mass SWoOp OF SUM-
day night.
Reports indicated the raid
spread over a wide area, but the
British Press association said
there were relatively few casual
ties.
A nurses home next to a hos.
pltal suffered a direct hit.
Authoritative sources warned
that the London raids merely were
a diversion from the German
main purpose which is to de-
stroy the British fighter force as
a preliminary to invasion.
ATT TIL A Tvc AJrEDrD