2 MAY 1941, Page 5

What is the meaning of the succession of savage raids

on Plymouth? Plymouth, of course, is an important naval base, but not more important than others which have suffered no such accumulation of attack. Is it a kind of purposeless reprisal for our repeated raids on Kiel? Or does it lend colour to the theory entertained in some quarters that the Nazis contemplate a surprise invasion stroke in Devon or Cornwall and want to put Plymouth out of action so far as possible in advance? Whatever the reason the result is a greater concentration of destruction than has fallen on any other city in England. And, nowhere, I imagine, has a greater proportion of bombed-out families or businesses suffered a second or third time.

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