BOMBER MISSIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1944, Page 5

BOMBER MISSIONS

TARGET NEAR PARIS

German Defenders Completely

Surprised

N.Z.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. noon. LONDON, Mar. 7. R.A.F. Bomber Command planes last night heavily attacked railway targets at Trappes, about 15 miles south-west of Paris, states an Air Ministry communique. The first reports indicate that bombing was accurate and well concentrated. The Germans were taKen by surprise by last night's heavy attack on railway targets at Trappes. For nearly an hour Halifaxes kept up the attack with little or no interference from the defences. Only one or two combats with enemy fighters were reported from the whole force, and none of the crews found anything more formidable than a few guns in the target area. At one stage of the attack there was only a solitary heavy gun firing. Weather was ideal for bombing, and by the bright moon crews could clearly see the complicated pattern of the railway lines.

A record force of nearly 300 Marauders from the United States Ninth Air Force attacked three targets in Northern France to-day—railway yards near the Belgian border, airfields 35 miles north of Paris, and military objectives in the Pas de Calais. No Marauder is missing. They were escorted by Royal Air Force, Dominion and Allied Typhoons and Spitfires. One Royal Air Force fighter is missing. Attacking convoys off the Norwegian and Dutch coasts, New Zealand Beaufighters without loss torpedoed two medium-sized merchant ships and probably torpedoed a third. Flight-Sergeant C. M. Tapper, of Christchurch, after his attack, saw a cloud of smoke envelope the ship. Flying-Officer I. A. Pettitt, of Dunedin, saw his torpedo run straight, but did not see the explosion, as he had turned away.

German Cities Report More Raiders

German air raid warning radio stations early to-day reported that Allied planes were over Western Germany and the Rhine area. Radio stations over wide areas in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland were off the air for periods of one to four hours. Frankfurt radio broadcast urgent raid warnings, declaring that raiders were circling the city. Hanover radio broke into a news bulletin, detailing the daylight air battle over Berlin yesterday, to announce that enemy raiders were flying into its warning area. Reuters Stockholm correspondent says that eye-witnesses of the American raid on Berlin who arrived in Sweden report that the northern and eastern parts of the city were very heavily hit and several great fires were visible from the Tempelhof aerodrome. It is officially announced that Flying Fortresses and Liberators shot down 93 enemy planes during the heavy attack on Berlin yesterday. This makes a total of 176 enemy planes shot down by bombers and fighters. The enemy flung in hundreds of fighters in a desperate endeavour to prevent the Flying Fortresses and Liberators from bombing Berlin yesterday. Flag was flung up in tremendous quantities, but in spite of this the combers pounded the selected targets, and when they left huge fires were springing up and the Reich capital was hidden under a dense pall of grey and black smoke.