January 13, 1940: BRITISH RAID EAST GERMANY

THIS WAS REPORTE TODAY, JANUARY 13, 1940:

Nazi Planes

Retaliate on
Scot Coast
One German Craft Is Reported
Shot Down Off
Firth of Forth
Allied Survey Flights
English Warplanes Fly
Over Czecho-Slovakia
and Austria

London. Jan. 13 Wj.—British fliers in "the greatest wartime survey flights" penetrated Bohemia and Austria during the night, carried on the North Sea warfare by attacking Nazi destroyers and today destroyed a German air raider over the Firth of Forth, the Air Ministry announced in a series of communiques.

The exploit of scouting over the southeastern parts of Greater Germany was the first of the war to be reported in that region.

A British war correspondent in France reported the British operated from French bases and flew over both Vienna and Prague.

Fliers starting from their home soil would have had to cover the equivalent of the distance over the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland for the reconnaissance.

 

2 Die, 20 Hurt

As Bombers
Raid Capital

.One Russian- Attacker

Believed to Have Been
Shot Down
(Engine Hits Ice)
Raid Marks First Attack
on City in Several Weeks

By WEBB MILLER

Helsinki, Jan.' 13 (UP).—More  Soviet airplanes bombed Helsinki shortly before 2 P.M. today. ,An official communique said that the raiders dropped approximately 30 to 40 bombs at various points. First reports indicated that 'two persons were killed and 20 wounded.

' One of the Soviet planes was reported to have been shot- down over Helsinki. Coins from the pilot's pockets fell Into the streets.

• 'Several large holes appeared In the' ice of the harbor, where, it was believed, an engine from a Soviet plane fell. 'The raid marked the first bombing attack on Helsinki in several weeks although there have been raids' on territory outlying from the capital.

- .Reports which reached the capital indicated that yesterday's Russian bombing raids on Finnish cities were the most extensive, in several weeks. ';

.

Turkey Hails

Balkan Front
Drive of Italy

Security Against Soviet

or German Attacks
Seen in Ankara

Ankara. Jan. 13 (AP)—Indications that Italy is taking the lead for a "united front" in Southeastern Europe against possible aggression .by

Soviet Russia we're hailed "widely today as meaning double security for Turkey. - -- •• •
Italy's position-was regarded by Turkish political leaders as "unambiguous opposition to Soviet-enterprise in: the Danube Basin or the Balkans."

Rome's efforts  were viewed as being virtually in complete harmony with British .and French aims—for a Balkan bloc that would be a barrier to both Russian and German expansion. Turkey Is allied with Britain and France in a mutual assistance pact.