The Midnight Sun - 19.10.1940, Page 1

THE MIDNIGHT SUN
SERIES
No. 10 Laugardaginn 19. október 1940. Price 10 aurar
1000 PLANES OVER LONDON?
KNIGHTS OF THE AIR.
Hark to the roar of ’em, score upon score of ’em
Flashiiuj their wings in the depth of the sky,
Red, white and btue on ’em, brave hearts and true on ’em,
Onward theij flash through the clouds up on high.
Look at the speed of ’em, England has need of ’em,
Thrill to the pride of ’em hurtling on.
Off to attack again — somc won’t come back again —
Come drink a toast to the lads who are gone.
Hark to ihe call of ’em, heroes in all of ’em,
Swifter than eagles — so deadly and sure,
Put all your trust in ’em, put your last crust on’ em —
While there’s a breath in ’em, they will endure.
Honour will fly with ’em, up in the sky with ’em,
Over your verdant fields, Land of the free.
There in a sky of blue, willing to die for you,
Here is the flower of today’s chivalry.
IONDON again experienc-
^ ed intense bombing by
Nazis last night. A succession
of enemy planes as on previ-
ous night flew in from East
and Nortli East and circling
over London to West later
made off in direction of South
and South West. The great
height at which some of the
raiders flew was indicated by
so called smoke trails traced by
planes across the sky brilliant-
ly lighted by „Hunter’s Moon“.
Incendiary and high explosive
bombs were showered on the
capital. The heavy lium of air-
craft engines suggested that a
mess raid was in progress. The
raiders were met with terrific
salvoes of gunfire and two en-
emy bombers are known to
Lave been destroyed. The at-
tack on the capital was of a
heavy nature, but the amount
of damage caused was not as
great as raids which took place
in early September. Bombs
were dropped indiscriminately.
A town in the Midlands was
also attacked. A number of
dwelling houses and some oth-
er buildings were hit, and
many fires were started. AIl
the figures v/ere promptly
brought under control. Some
persons were killed and others
wounded, but casualties were
not numerous having' regard to
the scale of the attack. Bombs
were also dropped in several
other districts in England and at
isolated spots in Scotland and
Wales, but reports indicate that
the damage caused was not ex-
tensive and the casualties few.
German wireless announced
that 1000 tons of bombs were
dropped in London by nearlv
1000 planes. Meanwhile British
planes by night and dav con-
tinue to bomb effectively Ber-
lin, Hamborg etc. and the
Channel ports. (Oct. 16th).
FIGHTING FOR
LIFE.
Mr. ChurchiH’s confidence
in the outcome of the war and
Germany’s eventual defeat was
again manifested in Tuesday,
when he was questioned in the
Commons on Britain’s War
Aims. The Prime Minister de-
clared that the time liad not
yet come when any official de-
claration could be made bey-
ond very carefully considered
general statements which had
already appeared. When ask-
ed to indicate that Britain was
not fighting a war to maintain
stalus quo, Mr. Churchill re-
torted tliat he did not think
anyone had the opinion that
Britain was figliting merely to
maintain this, but that Britain
was among other things, figlit-
ing' in order to survive —
(Cheers). Mr. Churcliill add-
ed: „Wlien our capacity to do
tliat is more generally recogn-
ised throughout thc World and
wlien the conviction we have
about it becomes more gener-
al, then we sliall be in a good
position to take a further view
of what we shall do witli that
Victory when it is won.“ —
SUBMARINE
SUCCESSES.
It is also revealed tliat a Brit-
ish submarine successulfly
bombarded military objectives
in Port Savona and sunk a
5,000 ton armed merchant ship
escorted by E-boats off Genoa.
She also sunk another armed
merchant cruiser of about
3,000 tons in Vado Boads.
An Italian supply ship of
about 3,000 tons was sunk bv
another submarine off Naples,
and a tliird submarine sunk an
800 ton enemy supply ship off
Benghazi.
„AJAX“ AGAIN!
Sinks Two Italian Destroyers
in Mediterranean.
H.M.S. „Ajax“, one of tlie
hero-ships of the famous act-
ion of the Biver Plate, has
again distinguished herself in
action.
During an extensive sweep
of the Mediterranean the
„Ajax“ made contaot with
three Italian destroyers of the
679 tons „Airone“ class about
80 miles southeast of Sicily.
She at once engaged them
and two were sunk outright.
Shortly afterwards she sight-
ed an enemy cruiser and four
destroyers, and during the en-
suing engagement one destroy-
er was crippled. The remain-
der of the force escaped in the
darkness.
With the assistance of planes
of the Fleet Air Army the
crippled destroyer was locat-
ed under tow by another de-
stroyer, but as soon as the Brit-
isli ships appeared the towing
destroyer made off.
Tlie crew of the crippled
vessel at once began to aban-
don her, and H.M.S. „York“
dropped rafts for them. Slie
then signalled to Italian stat-
ions giving the position of the
survivors. This was in spite of
the fact that it revealed the
location of the Britisli forces,
but after the experience of re-
scuing members of the crew of
the cruiser „Bartholomeo Col-
leoni“, tlie British ships did not
wait for another bombing!
The British warships were in
fact later attacked by Italian
áircraft, but none suffered
casualties or damage. Four
Italian planes were brought
down by F.A.A. figliters and
A.A. fire.