CITY OF MUNICH HEAVILY BOMBED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1943, Page 3

CITY OF MUNICH HEAVILY BOMBED

ATTACK AT NIGHT

Nazis Have All Defences In Action N.Z.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. ,1 p.m. LONDON, Sep. 7. After their failure to stop Royal Air Force Bomber Command's heavy attack on Mannheim on Sunday night with gunfire, the Germans once more tried flares to light up our aircraft attacking Munich last night, says the Air Ministry news service. They brought out everything to defend Hitler's adopted city. Light and heavy anti-aircraft fire, together with hundreds of searchlights and squadrons of fighters, lay low until the first salvo of bombs was dropped. Then all the defences went into action. A great weight of high explosives and incendiaries was dropped in about half an . hour. As the bombing became more intense the gunfire wavered and fell away, but the searchlights held on grimly to gaps in the clouds immediately over the target, and tried to cone the bombers for the fighters. Flares dropped from a great height took as long as 20 minutes to fall to the ground. One pilot saw as many as 40 being dropped at a time and several crews described how the Germans tried to make a brilliant path of light along the route to the city. A large part of the force had bombed and left by the time the Germans laid their first "fiare path," thousands of feet above the city, and the remainder found that the flares often helped them to pick out the fighters. One pilot saw three enemy aircraft shot down over the town, and another, towards the end of the attack, saw combats between bombers and fighters going on all round. Fires Well Alight . A Stirling pilot, who was one of the last over the target, said fires were getting well alight by the time he left. They could see thick smoke rolling up at least three miles high when they were 150 miles on the way home. His rear-gmmer told him that he could still see the glow. From the crews' reports, it appears that the Germans used almost type of fighter combat. Reports are not yet checked, but it is known that several enemy aircraft were brought down. Sixteen aircraft failed to return. A German communique admits that heavy damage was done. The communique says: "The British bomb terror was directed last night against the population of Munich. High explosives and incendiaries destroyed many houses and hit hospitals, churches and schools. The German air defences prevented the raiders from making a concentrated attack against the city. They partly jettisoned their bombs over a number of small localities and villages." Daylight Offensive The sky over the English Channel refilled with bombers and fighters from daybreak to-day, when the round-the-clock offensive over the Continent was continued. Great formations of bombers passed over Folkestone, while large numbers of Spitfires crossed and recrossed the Channel throughout the operations. Formations of Marauders of the United States Eighth Air Force Air Support Command struck at marshalling yards at St. Pol, in northwest France, this morning. Spitfires effectively drove off slight opposition. Flying Fortresses attacked an aircraft factory and airfield at Evere, close to Brussels, and a target near St. Omer, in France. Good bombing results are reported. Liberators attacked a convoy off the Dutch coast. All the bombers returned safely from these and other operations. One fighter is missing. Attack on Stuttgart Many fires were left burning in Stuttgart, the town which produces engines for aircraft and U-boat.s, by the formations of Flying Fortresses which flew over south-western Germany yesterday. Targets in France included airfields at Orleans and Conches. Serqueux, an important railway junction between Paris and Dieppe, was twice attacked, while large fires and explosions were caused at Amiens and Abbeville. Thirty-four American aircraft and four Spitfires are missing. Of the American planes 33 were Flying Fortresses, five of which are known to have landed in neutral territory, and one was a Thunderbolt. Not one enemy fighter was seen by any of the Fighter Command's hundreds of Spitfires and Typhoons which escorted these bombers on their six-pronged attack. An R.A.F. reconnaissance pilot reported that Mannheim and Ludwigshafen were still burning this morning, nearly 36 hours after the R.A.F. raid on Sunday night.