LONDON: After a lull all morning, pilotless aircraft had been flying over southern England at fairly regular intervals throughout late afternoon and evening on Saturday [June 17]. Ground defences continued to fire short but often heavy bursts at them.

The Under-Secretary for Air Captain Harold Balfour said today [June 18] of the pilotless bomber: “The new German secret weapon has been hailed with all the trimmings of totalitarian fury. The Nazi radio has excelled itself in sadistic joy, neurotic gloating and an absurd exaggeration of its air weapon. It is the most encouraging sign of the growing mental panic of Hitler, Goebbels and the rest”.

Mr. F. Miles, the noted British aircraft de­signer, declared that the British Government turned down a practical design for pilotless plane on the ground that it was an “indiscriminate” weapon.

Reports from southern England today show that after a night in which the Germans sent ordinary aircraft as well as pilotless planes across the Channel, a pilotless plane came over this afternoon. Several houses were demolished and so far five bodies have been recovered. Windows were blown out over a wide area. In last night’s attack, one “rocket bomb” dropped on a hospital killing some nurses and patients.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2019