The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-08-17

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 At noon, the air ministry an- nounced that a German bomber had been shot down over the Eng fish Channel early this morning by anti-aircraft batteries.
 Enemy activity in this country last night was not on a heavy scale,' the ministry said in . com- munique. Bombs were dropped in South Wales and some damage was done to property. Few casualties were caused.
 Bombs also were dropped in southeastern and southwestern Eng land. A few persons were injured when some houses were damaged in 8 town in. southwest England. Otherwise, very little damage was caused. An enemy bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft batteries over the channel in the early hours of this morning"
 Two more delayed action bombs exploded in the southwestern L,or1- don suburbs this morning.
 Sweep Out of Skies
 Swarms of German bombers and flghters-s some estimates placed the number at 2,5O0-swept out of lead- en skies from dawn to dusk and blasted England, Scotland and wales, and some broke through the defenses to reach London, the heart of Britain's far flung empire.
 The great Tilbury docks and the industrial southwestern suburbs were subjected to a terrific bombing and today the police and home guards still were digging in the ruins for bodies of civilian dead.
 Their work was made hazardous and more difficult by the fact that the Germans had dropped delayed action bombs, some of which did not explode until early today.
 Air raid protection headquarters reported that its workers knew of the presence of the delayed action bombs and had roped off the areas in which they fell. There was no damage when they went off.
 The British fought back stubborn ly, counting an official "bag" of T German planes while admitting the loss of IS. Pilots of 10 of the lost British planes were reported safe and uninjured.
 Sporadic Raids
 The Germans continued sporadic raids over the English countryside during the night, but it appeared that the force of the attack had been spent. British raiders again spread out over German-occupied portions of the continent in an effort to paralyze Adolf Hitler's aerial blitzkrieg at the source.
 (Dispatches from Switzerland again reported that foreign planes" had passed over Swiss territory dur ing the night. British planes have bombed industrial areas in southern Germany and northern Italy twice this week)
 (Munich, major city only a few miles from Hitler's Bavarian retreat at Berchtesgaden, was reported raid. ed during the night. but Germans minimized the damage.)
 Seriousness of Raids
 The majority of Britain's news papers made no effort to minimize the seriousness of the raids and gave equal prominence to the "fan- tastic" claims of Germany. The facts of the greatest mass raid ever made were summed up by British authorities in a few cold para graphs. % :.
 A cluster of suburbs in southwest London were bombed and machine gunned during the evening hours. There were many civilian casual ties, the toll probably being the highest since Germany began daily air raids over England, Scotland and Wales last Sunday.
 The suburb of Eastbourne and the section around North Fleet, on the southeast side of. London, were raided but few bombs were dropped and there were believede to have been few casualties. The air laid sirens sounded frequently in Lon- don proper, but no bombs were dropped and the population went about its business with p1inimum of alarm.
 Britons minimized foreign press reports that London had been sub- jected to terrific bombing. Lon- doners were amazed to read the German claims of huge successes in the bombing of military objec- tives in the suburbs, because with the exception of the bombing of Fx,.,.,dn,,, a ;,,1rrt rrI,,,pcdoxy ar4A fl1a southwest suburbs yesterday there has been no sign of an aerial blitz- krieg here.
 Newspapers and other commen- tators hinted that British raiders might now begin to strike at military objectives in populated German dis tricts as a result of the thrust at London. British planes have flown many times over Berlin. but never dropped bombs. The British have bombed industrial districts around