Mcallen Daily Press

Biggest Air Raid of War Rocks London
Hitler Launches his Win-or-Lose Gamble to Knock Britain Out of War; English Fight Back Valiantly
By WALLACE CARROLL
LONDON Sept 8—(Sunday)-(UP)—Hour-after-hour German planes in squadrons hundreds strong are bombing London this morning in what may be Adolf Hitler's win-or-lose gamble to knock Britain out of the war.
It started at 4:57 o'clock Saturday afternoon. It is now the early hours of Sunday morning. The German planes are still coming over. They are still dropping bombs. But London's defenders are fighting back blow for blow against the German challenge for air supremacy.
A parachute casts an eerie reflection over the great metropolis of London. The jarring roar of explosive bombs rocks this area and that area intermittently. Anti-aircraft guns crash on and on as British fighter planes zoom down upon the raiding squadrons.
BLAZES UNDER CONTROL
Clouds of smoke roll up from fires set by the bombs, but London's fire-fighters are working valiantly and by midnight most of the big blazes were under control.
In a midnight communique issued jointly by the air ministry and the ministry of home security it was said:
"Enemy attacks have been repeated in the London area tonight and it is now apparent that the scale of his attacks on London has been the largest yet attempted.
"Our defenses actively engaged the enemy at all points and the several defense services are responding admirably to all calls being made upon them.
"The action proceeds and a further statement will be made in due course."
65 NAZIS DOWNED
Reports tabulated up to midnight showed 65 German planes shot down and 18 British missing. Two British pilots were safe.
Damage was severe, especially in the slum and working class areas of London's East End. There were many fatalities and many, many wounded. In some districts witnesses counted a German bomb in almost every block.
If the Germans were concentrating on any special region it was the Thames area—the great waterway which is the artery of London. Its banks are jammed and crowded with huge warehouses, refrigerating plants, gas-works, docks, quays, ship yards and heavy industries.
Over the Thames since the time of the first late afternoon attack
See BIGGEST Page 6
BIGGEST AIR RAID
OF WAR
ROCKS LONDON

Continued From Page One

the smoke hung so heavy that it seemed to be thicker even than a London fog—smoke from fires set by the hundreds of incendiary bombs, large and small, dropped by the German airmen.

SEVERE DAMAGE
Early this morning word came from high government quarters admitting that what was described as "some fairly severe local damage" had been caused.
These quarters emphasized, however, their belief that the damage was not serious so far as the whole