Evening star., 1940-08-14
London
Continued From First Page.y

the country. Casualties were caused
some OF them serious, but very few
fatal injuries have been reported"
The public was we'll aware that
the battle of Britain finally was on.
Those sections of the country which
escaped the mass raids by day, with
hundreds Of bombers and fighters
CROSSING the channefin ever-fncreas-
ing waves, were told so by the press.
Ominously. all felt certain the
worst was yet to come.
The authoritative Times, elose to
the government, said This is in fact
the beginning of blitzkreig," and it
likened the air blitzkreig to the early
stages of Germany's recent cam
paigns on the continent, with the
Climax" perhaps close at hand"
Southampton Chief Target.
II the Germans are not preparing
for an attempt at actual invasion
the air blitzkreig may be the be-
ginning Of concerted starvation
blockade.
British airmen for their part were
assumed to have struck back this
morning. Berlin had a 47-minute
air raid during the night and the
Bremen radio shut down abruptly
a usual sign Of raids.
Southampton, Britain'S biggest
Southern port, was a principal OBJ
jective in yesterdays day-long mass
raids, the government disclosed last
night, So furious was the fighting
here, said an Air Ministry commu-
nique, that "at one time enemy
bombers and fighters were falling
out of the sky at the rate of about
one a minute"
The Air Ministry said 500 planes
took part in yesterdays attacks
Revised figures published This
morning set at 78 the number of
German aircraft definitely known
to have been destroyed" with 13
British fighter planes lost. Ger
many said the British lost 132 planes
yesterday, the Germans only 28D
The British acknowledged suffer-
ing only series of fires and "a few
casualties in the big attacks.
Many British believed Britain S
west coast, until now relatively eX-
empt, next may feel the full fury
Of the NaZi mass raids.
These ports are officially acknowl-
edged to be pretty full much
shipping having been diverted from
the eastern and southern ports
nearest the enemy's bases.
This mornings pre-daWn raids
were reported to have injured few
persons by flying glass in a North
east Scotland town. Residents of a
tenement house were preparing to
go to a shelter they had built back
of their building when a bomb fell
on their structure wrecking it.
In the midlands three police Of
ficers were killed by an automobile
on country road while waving red
lamps during a raid to order mo-
torists to switch off their lights.
The British met the air blitzkrieg
Dy attempting 10 carry on as nor
mally as possible. London motion
picture houses and the theaters
played to full audiences.
Civilians, however, appeared to be
more careful about carrying their
gas masks with them, as they con-
stantly have been warned to do.
Two British deStroyers hit three
German naval units in an engage
ment early today, the Admiralty an
nounced. adding that ''it is thought
that one armed trawler and one
E-boat German speedboaD were
sunk"
Loss of the mine-sweeping trawler
Elizabeth Angela was announced by
the Admiralty. The communique
said the trawler had been sunk "as
a result of enemy air attack" with
one fatal casualty.