The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-18

&1E GlU0uctoE or . Eleet btESoL DUE pieeffuily shouted at the passengers this morning:
 Hurry along. watch out for fall- ng German planes. Hurr yalong."
 Barrage Heavy
 The comparatively few planes the Germans sent over Britain during the night in an effort to convince the home front that they were give Ing as good as they received, met the heaviest anti-arcraft barrage of the var. The barrage and night fighters brought down 10 planes in all, a much larger percentage, 1t was irl- diCated, of the total number of planes involved than the German anti-aircraft defense achieved.
 Of the weak Nad retaliation, the air and home security ministries said in c joint comTnunique:
 "A few enemy bombers penetrated the outer defenses of London in two raids last night and early today. Ten enemy bombers were destroyed.
 There was some damage but no. where was 1t on a large scale, and It was mainly confined to houses. The number of casualties so far re- ported is not large"
 1t was believed many of the Ger man raiders not shot down were damaged so badly they never crossed the Channel to their bases. During the first raid, between 8 and 10 p. fn., 26 to 30 planes headed for Lorl- don. A number of these failed even to reach the city and the other caused only small damage.
 The second raid was carried out by about the same number of planes between 4:30 and 6 a. In., but even fewer penetrated the outer defenses to range over London. There were scattered incidents in various parts of South England.
 The destruction of 10 planes brought the total of enemy aircraft destroyed over Britain since the war started to more than 4,000.
 The air rninistry's communique announcing the second attack on Berlin said:
 Fires Burning
 Berlin was again attacked by a strong force of our heavy bombers last night. A great load of bombs was dropped and at the end the attack large fires were burning. Over the target area there was some clouds, but for most of the way our bonbers flew n bright moonlight.
 '.There were many combats with enemy fighters and one was des- troyed.
 "Aircraft fighter command in- truder patrols attacked enemy transport targets in France, Bel- giltm an6 Holland.
 'srwenty-two of our bombers are missing"
 Observers believed that the great difference between the number of British planes lost last night and lost Saturday night-22 against one had been at least partly due to the weather. Saturday night the British bombers flew all the way to Berlin over heavy cloud banks. Last night a bright moon created the condition most favorable for the operation of night fighters.
 The air ministry gave no indica- ion of the number of planes that lnaaNed in either raid, although Soth forces were described as ~heavy." Tn the past, "heavy' has meant anything from 300 to 800 planes but more recently heavy has Implied any number of planes ex- ceeding 100. It was not believed here that the Saturday night force exceeded, at most, 300.
 German propagandists, following their well known technique, mini mixed both raids, though Berlin newspaper editorials, quoted by the German radio, indicated that Sat- urday nights raid had been sutn- ciently heavy to shake civilian nerves, for they spoke of the neces- sity of the home front matching the courage and endurance of German troops in Russia.
 The Berlin radio said that British bombers penetrated the "area of the western Baltic" last night and small number reached the area of Greater Berlin" These "few," 1t continued, dropped bombs "at ran- dom in residential quarters" It said 24 planes had been brought down. two more than the British acnnowledged. It claimed three planes downed Saturday night.
 m the first raid on London, a stick of bombs wrecked a block oi shops, including @ big drapery and general store.
 British night fighters went into action during the second raid, ap- parently causing the defensive ground fire to be less heavy than during the first attack. High ex. nlosive bombs were dropped, and 2C houses were damaged in one section of London and seven in another.
 Anti-aircraft shells caused some casualties. One landed in subur- ban area, killing one person and wounding two when 1t exploded one person was killed and six wounded by falling ack-ack shells within the City of London.
 Buckingham Palace ShelIed
 A British anti-aircraft shell fell in the garden of Buckingham Palace. It uprooted bed of Brus- sels sprouts in the former flower garden but caused no other damage or casualties.
 A none-stop Allied aerial offensive