THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 4, 1940.
Page
Germany Warned To Expect Instant Reprisals 200 CASUALTIES IN PARIS AIR RAID
(SPECIAL TO “CHINA MAIL "")
PARIS, TO-DAY.
JOE BECKETT RAID ON PARIS AND ITS SUBURBS AND THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND WIFE
FORTY-FIVE WERE KILLED AND OVER 150 INJURED IN YESTERDAY'S AIR
HAS GIVEN GERMANY OFFICIAL WARNING TO EXPECT INSTANT RE- PRISALS.
Over 200 German planes took part in the attack, the first raid on Paris in the present war, and more than a thousand high explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped.
Two schools in Paris and two in the suburbs were destroyed and 10 children were killed and 18 in- jured at one of them.
Mr. William Bullitt and the Ameri- can Air Attache, who were having lunch with a high French official, went out on to the balcony to see the raiders and a bomb dropped into the recep- tion room behind them, but did not explode.
The cars of two of the guests were destroyed in the garage which was hit.
French fighters and anti-aircraft batteries brought down sixteen of the raiders, who flew at a consider. able height during the whole period of the raid and were bombing more or less indiscriminately.
A score of serious fires were start- ed, over 100 buildings were complete- ly wrecked by demolition bombs, while scores of others were damaged.
Lunch-Time Raid
The alarm was sounded at 1.20 p.m. and five minutes later the roar of 'planes could be heard.`· Although the sky was cloudless, a thick haze prevented the 'planes from being seen by observers in the city, but anti-aircraft fire was bursting in all directions.
Bombs could be heard falling to and exploding from 1.80 p.m. 1.50 p.m., after which they taper ed off into occasional explosions. Eye-witnesses on roofs-saw French Aghters go up and become lost from view in the haze. All around was the indescribable din of motors and the bursts of anti-aircraft, fire.
the while
Official Communique
Paris, To-day.
very short time the streets were de- serted.
Suddenly anti-aircraft guns began a barrage and the sky became dotted with puffs of white smoke,
The air vibrated with the explo- sions of anti-aircraft shells which drowned the noise of aeroplane gines.
Then came a series of heavier ex-
plosions as German bombs crashed to
earth.
ARRESTED
London, "To-day.
Joe Beckett, the famous ex-heavy- weight, and his wife have been taken. into custody under the new Defence Regulations.
It is understood the Becketts be- came connected with the British Union of Fascists before the war. Joe recently joined the Local. Defence Volunteers.
"
Meanwhile, Frank Joyce, 23-year- old brother of William Joyce, reputed to be "Lord, Haw Haw" who broad- Anti-aircraft guns continued to fire casts in English from Bremen, is for 20 minutes and long after they among those who Scotland Yard of- had ceased, Parisians heard bursts officers detained during the week-end.- machinegun fire from French fighters Reuter. of-engaging the enemy.
The first bombs of the war to drop on the French capital yesterday after- noon caused 200 casualties, of whom 45 were killed, according to an ficial communique.
A long plume of black smoke indi- The German bombs fell on pricated that one plane was hit. vate houses entirely remote from any conceivable military objectives; the official communique says the alm of the enemy bombings was "poten- tially objectives of a military na- ture."
Between 40 and 300 planes took part in the raid, in which, a thousand bombs were dropped; several German planes were brought down.
It is reliably learned that among the buildings, hit by bombs were a secondary school, a girls secondary school, two high elementary schools and four suburban schools.
American Dead
One school, which had been convert- ed into a hospital, was hit by 15 bombs and two orderlies were killed. dead include one American.
The
Some bombs dropped inside the city, some falling on private houses. High explosive and incendiary bombs were ropped on the city.
The streets had to be roped off to keep back hundreds of people who came in cars to see the bomb holes in the roads and the ruins of apart- ment houses in the fashionable quar“. ter.
Paris streets over wide areas on both the left and right banks of the Seine, were littered with debris and glass.
Cost Of Temerity
When the sirens went off, populace hurried for cover, ambulances and first-ald lorries hurried to their appointed-posts. All Clear In 70 Minutes Explosions were heard, windows and buildings were shaken.
The "all clear" came about an hour and ten minutes later.
It is understood that a group of apartment houses was among the "military objectives" hit. The po- pulace remained calm, the generally caught owing to their own temer- reaction being one of grim fury.
There were countless bomb craters, varying from a few feet deep to five yards across and deep enough to cut gas, electricity and water pipes.
Most of the victims were apparent-
ity or carelessness in not keeping shel-
Another eye-witness reports that ter. 15 men and women, all wounded, were brought into his air-raid shelter during the attack,-Havas,
Parisians were lunching when the sirens began wailing at 1.16 p.m. The people quietly took shelter and in a
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The all clear was sounded at 2 p.m. A number of houses, were set fire by the German bombs and are fighting service was quickly on
the scene.
The German Story
оп the
BREAD PRICE UNCHANGED
London, To-day. *
The Minister of Food stated yester- day afternoon that the price of a two pound loaf of bread would remain as In Berlin, the official German news at present for the next three months. This statement is interesting follow- agency, reporting the Paris air raid, states: "German bombers this after-ing upon Sunday's announcement by that noon attacked the Paris aerodrome at the Minister of Agriculture Issy les Moulines and other aerodromes agricultural prices will have to rise of the. French air in future in order to allow for the and institutions force in the vicinity of Paris."-Reu- payment of higher agricultural wages.
-British Wireless. ter.
Narrow Escape
Washington, To-day. Mr. William Bullitt, the United States Ambassador, had a narrow es- cape in the Paris air raid.
President Roosevelt Telephoning
OFF THE RECORD
f
after the raid he told how a bomb fell within six feet while he was hav- ing lunch and failed to explode. The bomb came through the ceiling.
Mr. Bullitt told President Roosevelt: "God was with me."
“Gosht 1
they brand,
won't.
Here's Luck
Reuter.
By ED REED,
EWO BEER