The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-18
London Retaliatory
 Raids By Nazis Weak
tcontinued from Page I,

| radio went of the air early in the evening and soon afterward great explosions, heard on the British southeast coast, told of Q heavy night bombing raid on inland oc- cupied France.
 Berlin's big long wave radio sta- ton went of the air ct 7:23 p. m. flor technical reasons" and soon afterward the report came from Stockholm that Berlin was being blasted a second time, 24 hours after the first.
 Saturday nights raid, the first on Berlin by the British since Nov. 2, 104l, had been the biggest of the New Year and the Air Ministry an. nounced that the fires started by approximately 100 tons of bombs, including 5000 pound block busters, could be seen 100 miles.
 It was one of the Royal Air forces most successful raids of the war. Only one plane was lost.
 German planes started raiding the eastern, southeastern and south- western coasts of England shortly after dark last night and soon after 8 p. m. The air raid sirens sounded in the London area. Anti-aircraft guns went into action and soon bombs started dropping.
 Fires were reported in various metropolitan areas, one caused by an explosive bomb on the roof of a big department store. Bremen quickly put out all fires.
 Bombs blasts broke many windows and traffic was diverted from some streets.
 One Hour Raid
 The all clear was sounded before 10 p m. but little before s a. m. there was another raid which lasted about an hour.
 Despite the widespread raid area, 1t was believed that only a relative ly smaller number of planes took part in the attacks and damage and casualties were small.
 German propagandists told their people that strong forces Init the city area of London with high ex. plosive and incendiary bombs, caus- ing major damage" and many tons of high explosives and thousands of lncendiary bombs caused great des- truction" in South and East Coast areas.
 The German planes got a surprise when they met London's greatly strengthened air defenses. They tried to cause confusion by flying over from all directions at once, and were met by @ terrific burst of fire. At least three persons were killed and many wounded by shelf fragments which fell in streets and on rooftops.
 Even veterans of the blitz period Of 1940-41 were astonished at the fury of the fire, which made an al. most continuous roar and filled the sky with clusters of shell bursts.
 It was believed that in addition to planes known downed some may have crashed in the Channel or over occupied territory on their way back to base.
 One raider was caught in e clus. ter and fell in flames into a recre- ation ground near houses.
 Rooftop observers heard the Ger man planes diving and weaving to escape clusters numbering 70 shells,
 It was agreed that there never had been such gun fire in London and in fact the gun fire, not the bombs, provided the spectacular feature of the raids.
 An air ministry review of the first Berlin raid said 1t was remark able because only one plane was lost and because of the very light gun fire encountered, though Berlin is one of the most strongly defended cities in the world. It was suggested that the Germans thought Berlin was safe from attack and had moved guns to other places.
 Clouds Protect Raiders
 The raiders were protected by heavy clouds almost all the way to Berlin but the sky over the city It. self was clear and bright moonlight helped the flares to light targets.
 Some planes dropped their bombs | oAaSAJI VV4IS1o dtVdChSQ HI 1OTII1As . tions of five. Crews picked their tar. gets carefully and one plane spent 40 minutes circling the city and making three runs before 1t drop. ped its 5000 pound bomb.
 Whole sticks of incendiary bombs were seen burning, and the crews dropped the big explosive bombs in. to the fires.
 Stockholm revealed that tht bombs nearly caused a panic at thC big Deutschland hall where 20,. 900 persons were watching an in- door circus. Incendiary bombs hi the roof while spectators were going to shelter. A trainer jumped on ( big elephant, Stockholm said, anc led the elephants out while other trainers, shooting blank cartridges from pistols, forced lions and tiger, into cages.
 Wing Commander c. L. Cheshire who was making his seventh raic on Berlin, said that whereas Berlir used to be the hottest spot in Ger. many, with hundreds of guns ant searchlights, he saw only ont searchlight Saturday night anc found the gunflre negligible. Che. shire'S wireless operator, who was nalSiOo I1ie 12tk EarIjY, ,.oid oo,,