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DAY RAIDS
LESS INTENSE
Widespread Night
Bombing
Australian Associated Press
LONDON. October 1.
Although the Germans continued
their daylight raids this morning, they
appear, so far, to have been on a smaller
scale than yesterday's widespread at-
tacks, in which they lost 47 planes.
British losses yesterday were 22 fighters
and 10 pilots.
Two solitary German planes were
heard high over the north-west of Lon
don in the middle of this morning, and
the anti-aircraft Runs opened fire on
them. Other planes were sighted over
the south-west and central districts.
Two explosions in the north of Lon
don sounded like bombs.
Puffs of smoke from anti-aircraft
shells were seen in the west of London,
but no planes were visible. Other
raiders are believed to have been In the
vicinity of three south-east and two
south-west coast towns late In the morn
ing
British patrols assisted the barrage
in keeping off last night's raiders, who
bombed many widely separated areas
around London, including the northern,
south-eastern, and south-western sub
urbs
Raiders Caught in Ugtats
Things did not warm up in central
London until nearly midnight, when
four raiders came over. Dozens of
searchlights picked them up. and two
seemed to turn back before the blinding
light. The others went forward, fol
lowed by the barrage. Bombs were
heard falling, and then the raiders
turned round and sped northwards,
pursued by gunfire.
It Is officially announced that the
enemy air attacks last night were
directed mainly against London. Bombs
were also dropped on Merseyside and
several other localities, particularly in
the south-east of England. Bombs were
scattered over a wide area of London's
suburbs. A number of houses in north
east London were destroyed, but the
casualties were not large. Fires caused
at Merseyside were quickly controlled.
There was no serious damage and only
a few casualties. A number of pre
mises were hit in an east Midlands
town, where several people were fatallv
injured.
Wearing Down Tactics
The Germans struck at Britain all
day yesterday. Beginning at 9.15
a jn.. the first two attacks, bom of which
were made at London, are described by
the Air Ministry as largely feints de
signed to wear down our fighters.
Neither attempt was successful. Soon
after 11 ajn thp enerav attacked the
West country and about 70 bombers and
fighters crossed the coast between St.
Alban's Head and Portland, and spread
ing fanwise over Dorset and Somerset
The main attack came about midday.
The main body of raiders. 120 strong,
reached no further than the North
Downs, but a few reached the London
area, from which they were quickly
driven off. Another determined attack,
in which between 200 and 300 planes
took part, followed at tea time, but
aeain only a few penetrated to London.
The final daylight attacks were made
on Portland and Bristol.
German Shoots German
During an evening attack on the
south-east of TgngfenH two Messer
schmitts met an unusual end. One was
shot down by one of his fellows, and
the other crashed in Windsor Great
Park after the pilot had failed to re
cover from a flat-out dive on two Avro
Ansons He tried a steep turn at only
1.800 feet.
The.pilot was taken prisoner by a Mew
Zealand Hurricane pilot, whq was driv
ing a car near the park while on leave.
The destruction of a German fighter
by another of its own type Is described
by a group-captain of the RAF, who
saw the Incident. He was flying at
17.000 feet and met 18 German bombers
flying north-west over Surrey with an
escort of fighters. He attacked the
bombers head-on until they turned
away, and then turned his attention to
the German fighters. Three of these
were flying in line, attacking another
Hurricane, with the group-captain
about to dive on them from above. The
pilot of the second German plane ap
parently got so excited that he shot
down his leader and was immediately
afterwards shot down himself by a
burst of tire from the croup-captain's
Hurricane.
The best fighting occurred in a mid
day attack in the south-east, when a
Spitfire squadron met 20 Dornier 125's
with an escort of 50 or 60 Messerschmitt
109's. The Spitfires' leader went right
through the fighters and "shot up" the
leading group of bombers. One of his
pilot officers in the meantime bad dived
on a Messerschmitt which he sent down
smoking in a vertical dive.
Another formation of Spitfires went
mainly for the fighters, definitely shoot
ing down six. one of which blew up in
mid-air, and seriously damaged seve
ral others. The Polish squadron chased
30 Dorniers from Beachy Head to the
French coast and shot down four. This
squadron now has 100 victims.
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