INLAND PORT BOMBED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 37, 23 November 1940, Page 5

INLAND PORT BOMBED.

KEY TO COMMUNICATIONS. HIGH AND LOW LEVEL ATTACKS. LONDON, November 21. The great German inland port of Duisburg-Ruhrort, the largest inland port in tho world, was selected as the main target for the Royal Air Force on Thursday night. The raid, which was described as the heaviest yet made in that area, lasted from soon after 11 p.m. until dawn. The port is the bridgehead of an elaborate communication system where rail, road and canal meet with a constant flow of war materials between the Ruhr and Rhineland. Its docks are constantly filled by barges, hundreds of which daily discharge cargoes of iron, oil and grain. The town has four railway stations, daily receiving coal from the Ruhr, and many first-class roads. A serious raid like Thursday ' night’s must have disorganised essential traffic and destroyed indispensable materials.

The attack was carried out from high and low levels. Among the projectiles were special small-calibre highexplosive bombs chosen as able to do the most damage over such an extensive target. ' The first machines arrived over the target at 11 o’clock, and from then on till break of day the town and its communications were subjected, to continuous bombardment.

The second wave of bombers counted 34 bursts, and there were too many fires to be counted. A huge warehouse at one end of the docks was ablaze, silos were on fire, and the main docks were hit and damaged.

One pilot, on his return, recalled that the Germans, praising this great centre, were accustomed to say that a trip round Duisburg’s docks was well worth while. “We certainly found it so,” he added. Other targets, included aerodromes in Brittany, Normandy and Picardy. Near Amiens, a German bomber, which had evidently just taken off, for its navigation lights were showing, was picked up by a Blenheim. The British machine* gave the German bursts from front and rear guns as it swept past, and the German was seen to. crash in flames on its own airport. The fire helped later bombers. The oil plant at Lautzingen, in Holland, and the ports of Ostend, Dunkirk and Cherbourg, and the German submarine base at Lorient were also raided effectively.

One British aeroplane has not returned to its base. .

A German communique mentions air attacks against the southern harbours of England. It states that British planes attacked aerodromes in the west and north of France. Bombs were dropped at several places in western Germany, but the only hits scored were on smelting works.

WEATHIEIR PREVENTS RAIDS. (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) LODON, November 22. Inquiry at the Air Ministry* reveals that bad weather caused all Royal Air Force bomber operations to be cancelled last night.