Evening star., 1941-01-07
Nazi Raiders Cause
MidIands Casualties
In Daylight Raids
London Kept Under Alert
More Than Three Hours;
East AneIio Attacked
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. 7. - German
raiders were reported to have killed
or wounded several persons in a
Midlands town today in the heaviest
of a series of daylight raids against
that industrial area, London and
the southeast coast.
The Midlands casualties were re-
ported in the suburb Of town
where several houses were demol-
ished. This raid was carried out as
London was kept under alert for
more than three hours and the
citys anti-aircraft defenses roared
repeatedly at the attackers.
Two explosions were heard in
London soon after the sirens
sounded. In the late afternoon
machine gun fire was heard from
a plane over the capitals outskirts.
Anti-aircraft fire was heard in
various London districts and along
the Thames estuary.
Raiders in East Anglia.
Gunfire and the sound OF planes
could be heard shortly before the
alarm and it was believed one or
two German aircraft were using low
clouds in a hit-and-run attack.
Other raiders also were reported
In an East Anglian town, and the
rumble of several high-eXplosive
bombs were heard in the distance.
Heavy gunfire and planes had been
heard earlier over one town near
London, but no bombs were heard
then.
Planes also were reported near
Liverpool.
A German bomber believed to
have been a Dornier dived four
times to attack two trawlers in
plain view of watchers on the south
east coast.
The plane twice dived and ma
chine gunned the vessel, then re-
leased two bombs near one ship,
returned and repeated the machine
cunning.
It was held off by the trawlers'
machine guns, however, and fled to
sea at the appearance of a Spltflre.
Weather Hampers Night Raiders.
Snow and bad weather conditions
over the continent kept Britain's
bombers away from Germany dur
ing the night and Britain also expe-
rienced a respite from the almost
nightly assault of the Luftwaffe.
The Royal Air Force was said to
have limited its activities to few
short, armed reconnaissance flights
across the channel to German in
vasion ports" early last evening.
Residents along England's south
coast said they could see occasional
flashes of light along the German
held French coast and could hear
the sound of distant explosions,
but authoritative quarters indicated
British planes had carried out no
extensive bombing operations.
Three Daylight AIerts.
A communique by the Minister
of Air and Home Securities, con-
corning air activities over Britain
during the night said merely there
is nothing to report" Observers
said German reconnaissance flights
which caused three daylight alerts
in London yesterday probably
showed the Nazis that a night at
tack would not be worth the dangers
of taking off and landing in bad
weather.
A single Nazi plane was heard high
over the northeast coast last night,
but was said to have been turned
back by anti-aircraft fire.
The public was informed today
that Broadcasting House, the British
Broadcasting Corps home in Lon
don, had been very seriously
damaged" in two recent air raids,
and that several B. B. C. staff
members were killed at their posts.
The Ministry of Information said
that in one night raid a heavy
bomb hit the building while news
announcements were being read in
English and German.
The reading went on without
Interruption although several
women staff members were killed,
the announcement said.
Another night, "at the peak hour
of evening broadcasts," bomb ex-
plosions were said to have killed
a policeman and wounded a number
Of staff members.
Seven staff members were killed
and others injured in the first raid.
The announcer, who continued
his news announcements, was Bruce
Belfrage, former actor who had
appeared in the United States and
Canada. The bomb damaged the
fifth floor of the building.
British and German flyers have
been making shorter and more
concentrated air raids with the
arrival of winter, due presumably
to two factors:
attacks by many planes from scat
tered flying fields where weather
conditions vary according to local
tiles.
Second, sharp weather variations
from hour to hour over the areas to
be attacked
Close Weather Patrols.
Inc Germans keep CLOSE WedUneT
patrols around Britain to take ad-
vantage of favorable conditions as
they appear.
A British source said it was be-
lieved in aviation circles here that
transportation difficulties are be-
ginning to tell on the German air
campaign, making the Nazi high
command cautious about wasting
planes and supplies when the re-
suits are unlikely to be good.
The Germans were short of rail-
way equipment and freight cars
even before the war, this source said,
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