Imperial Valley press., 1941-05-12
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By NED RUSSELL

LONDON. May u tuP)-German
raiders broke up into scattered hit
run formations last night. avoiding
mass contact with the British de-
lenders who have shot down l6s
raiding planes already this month.
Almost 40 areas of Britain were
bombed, but there was no concen-
trated attack anywhere. and Lon
don was avoided. The Germans
had lost SO planes while blasting
historic Westminster church and
parliament buildings SATURDAY
night. LondonerS had believed this
was the beginning of a bitter and
sustained aerial siege. and most of
them had bedded down in shelters
peIore dark. There were three
alarms but no bombs fell.
Wreckage lay deep around some
OF the empires most hallowed
shrines, particularly Westminster
Abbey, where four years ago today
King George and Queen Elizabeth
were crowned in gay and color
ful ceremony, but Londoners found
encouragement in the capitulation
OF German losses for the first II
DAYS of this month, including an
other eight planes shot down last
night, and also in the fact that
the full moon last night had seen
the raids diminish.
HERE'S DEADLY SCORE
The score for II days of Nav
was: 98 raiders shot down by night
fighters over Britain and eight over
France, "a shot down at night bv
antl-alrcraft guns and two brought
down by the balloon barrage-a
total of 1872. Daylight losses were:
20 by fighters, six by anti aircraft
guns, one by unknown cause-a
total of 36. The nightly score dur
ing May has been one. six, 16
nine, nine, nine, "a, IA, th"se. 33.
seven. The May losses compare
with Is night raiders shot down in
January, Is in February, AZ in
March, 81 in April.
German night bombers carried out
extensive attacks last night on a
large number of royal air force
airdromes.
The Nazi attack, it was indicated,
caused some damage but an au-
thoritative source asserted that
except at one or two points the
damage was not considerable.
The Germans attacked nearly 40
points throughout Britain during
the night and the Nazi high COM
mand communique, as received
here, asserted that most of these
attacks were directed against air
fields md other royal air force in
stallations.
BERLIN EXAGGERATES
While large number of Raj
were attacked last night"
said an authoritative source. "the
enemy claims as usual are grossly
exaggerated. Except at one or two
points the damage was not con-
and the number of service
casualties was not large, although
these included some killed.
f'N~AAASo tJOociDiC lIldG Tie NdZl
upon Raj stations may
lave been inspired by the unusually
heavy British air attacks upon Ger
many in the past few days.
The Luftwaffe, it was thought.
nay have been ordered to attack
7AF airdromes in an attempt to
'ut the weight of the British air
offensive against German cities.
Another theory advanced by some
3rltlsh quarters is that the attacks
pom British airfields are designed
o soften up the Raj in prepara-
ION for the ultimate Nazi invasion
ttempt.
According to this theory the Ger
nan cir attack on Britain probably
las been planned in three phases:
lrsC, the heavy attack on ports
nd industrial centers which has
ing been underway; second, the
ttack on RAF bases preparatory ,
a new attempt to win day air
ontrol; third, the final all-out in ,
asion attempt. +