DAM BROKEN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 175, 6 May 1944, Page 4

DAM BROKEN.

THE LATEST

BOMBING ON PESCARA RIVER. ELECTRICITY GENERATING DESTRUCTION OF PLANT (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, May 5. Kittyhawks and Mustangs this after noon broke the great. Pescara dam, 12 miles south-east of Chieti, on the Pescara River, by dive-bombing, says a correspondent at Naples. Twenty minutes after the first Mustangs had cracked the iron sluice gate a wall of water was seen moving down stream toward Pescara, being followed by high waves. No aircraft was lost. The darn, where there is an electricity generating station, is some 20 miles up the River which flows into the Adriatic and runs almost parallel .with the Sangro. The dam is 15 miles from Orsogna.

A Mustang fighter-bomber squadron first attacked the dam this afternoon. Kitty bombers, following, added to the wreckage. The crews were briefed to power-dive through anticipated antiaircraft fire and drop bombs in a very small area where they could do the most damage. It is known that only a heavy explosion underwater could break the heavy sluice gates. Another formation of Kitty bombers made the third assault and saw debris hurled high into the air as the bombs got home. Twenty minutes later the flood Avas a mile below the dam and behind the main tide of water came six huge waves. —British Official Wireless.