LINCASTERS BOMB E-BOATS AT LE HAVRE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 141, 16 June 1944, Page 5

LINCASTERS BOMB E-BOATS AT LE HAVRE

I DAYLIGHT ATTACK i R.A.Fi's Most Spectacular Operation N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, June 15. A heavy bomber attack on Le Havre before dusk was one of the R.A.F.'s most spectacular operations during the war, says the correspondent at Allied Invasion Headquarters. Several hundred Lancasters, in two waves, attacked E-boat pens and harbour installations in daylight. They were escorted by Spitfires. The raid was most successful, being carried out with extremely small loss. Twelve thousandpounders were among the bombs dropped. It was the R.A.P. Bomber Command's biggest daylight attack for weight of bombs dropped. The heavy bombers followed with another attack almost three hours later. These attacks against Le Havre are regarded as an outstanding example of the flexibility of air power and its use on a completely co-ordinated tactical scale. The attack did not force the E-boats out, but, for the first time since D day. there was no E-boat in action in the Channel last night. New Zealanders played an important part in last night's operations against railway junctions and ro,id transport behind the battlefront. Pilots reported more enemy movement than during any night since the invasion began. After using flares to pinpoint objectives the bombers attacked concentrations of parked vehicles and store dumps from low level with cannon, as well as bombs. Fuel stores exploded and trucks in Mezidon railway yards, south-east of Caen, were set on fire.