MANY FIRES RAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 5, 17 October 1940, Page 5

MANY FIRES RAGE.

AN ATTACK ON BERLIN. BOMBS IN HEART OF CITY. (United Presa Association —Copyright ) LONDON, October 15. For nearly an hour, and a-quarter last night British raiders flew over Berlin seeking out and attacking a number of military objectives, both in the suburbs and in the heart of the capital. An Air Ministry bulletin states that a slight haze lay over the city when shortly after 2 a.m. the first of the raiders penetrated the outer ring of Berlin’s powerful defences and circled high oyer the capital. The hunter’s moon, which had helped the raiders on their 600-mile flight from England, lit up the sprawling city. The large gasworks in the Danzigerstrasse, two and three-quarter miles from the centre of the city, were quickly located and a well-aimed stick of heavy calibre bombs started several fires which soon gained in intensity. A few minutes later, the Templehof railway yards, close to Berlin’s main airport, had been-identified and bombed by a second raider. The crew of this aircraft reported that after their own attack they saw a fire raging four or five miles to the north in the approximate positions of the Danzigerstrasse gasworks. ' Other raiders concentrated their .attack on military objectives in the” centre of the city. Several tons of heavy calibre liigh-explosive and quantities of small fire-bombs were unloaded oh ’ the targets and at one stage of the raid other explosions and fires could bo seen simultaneously in several parts of the target area. A direct hit with a heavy bomb was also scored on a railway siding near the Lehrte station, about a mile from the Brandenburger Tor. The R.A.F. so heavily attacked the synthetic oil plant at Politz, whose annual production is more than 1,000,000 metipc tons of motor fuel, that the flames must have been visible in Berlin, 80 -miles away. The ground defences put up a constant barrage but several raiders came down to 400 feet to enable sure aim. Visibility was excellent and flares were not necessary in the bright moonlight, a pilot said. At 400 feet we felt the heat coming up as if somebody was using a blowlamp. The fire must have been nearly a mile square.

New Zealanders Engaged. For nearly an hour ’planes from two squadrons, one composed of New Zealanders, constantly bombarded the oil plant at Bolden, southward of Leipzig. The first ’plane started four large fires. Bright moonlight and leaping flames clearly outlined the great refinery for the second raider, who caused a violent explosion after which a column- of white smoke rose 6000 feet. Other bombers attacked in quick succession. The oil plants at. Magdeburg and Hanover were also heavily damaged A German communique says: “The enemy, as usual, flew over German and the occupied territories after nightfall and were met by effective defences. Bombs were dropped and caused slight material damage to non-military objectives and buildings. Losses were only among civilians. A high-explosive bomb again hit the Rudolph Virtchow Hospital, which is marked by a Red Cross, which is easily distinguished. Destruction caused at Lc Havre in the last few days and also on Dutch territory was particularly heavy. Numerous buildings were destroyed by fire and part of the population is without a roof over its head. The Luftwaffe dropped 147 tons of bombs on London yesterday.’’

The Royal Air Force to-night bombed a naval dockyard in northern Germany, communications, aluminium and oil targets in Western and Central Germany, together with the invasion ports, particularly Le Havre, where units of one Czech squadron continually battered the docks and shipping for nearly four hours." The German newspapers publish details of a plan to evacuate 75,000 children from the capital as a result of Royal Air Force raids. The first trainload is already on route to Poland.