MOHNE DAM BOMBING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 171, 21 July 1943, Page 3

MOHNE DAM BOMBING

"Greatest European Disaster In Living- Memory" GERMAN'S LETTER TO NORWAY LONDON, July 16. An uncensored letter in German to Norway, written in May, gives one of the most graphic descriptions of the bombing of the Mohne dam yet published. "You'll have received my letter telling how 'Tommy' hit the Mohne dam. This is truly the greatest catastrophe in Europe in living memory. Nothing as horrible has happened as long as 'Tommy' has thrown bombs. There is no comparison with Cologne, Essen, Duisburg or Dusseldorf. "Three mines made direct hits and 170 ft, not 50ft as I wrote, flew out from the dam wall. The dam was 100 ft high, and 85ft were wrenched loose. Its height is now only 15ft. "In nine minutes the water reached Neheim, seven miles from the dam. In 20 minutes all the water ran out. "In Neheim and Bosperde nothing but corpses and dead cattle came floating down. Niederense, Himmelpforten and Hachen have completely disappeared from the earth's surface. We now do not get shocked about how many were killed. About 3000 are reported dead so far. "About SSO Russians were all drowned in five minutes in one camp. People climbed on roofs, but the houses collapsed under them. "There were six large new buildings at Neheim, but not one brick could be seen afterwards. To-day you see beds, doors, corpses and cattle hanging in the trees." PLANE STRIKES CAR THREE PERSONS KILLED Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON, July 20. A Royal Air Force plane abandoned in mid-air by its crew over Anglesey after catching fire struck a car near in which a doctor, his wife and mother-in-law were travelling. Thd two women were killed and the floctor died in hospital. The plane#; crew bailed out and landed safeljj.