TROOPS STRAFED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 215, 11 September 1944, Page 6

TROOPS STRAFED

NAZIS SLAUGHTERED I Allied Planes Constantly Support Armies X.Z.P.A. ■ and British Wireless !Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Sept 10. I Reuters correspondent with the ! Allied Tactical Air Force in Belgium : says that Allied planes, which yes- ; terday carried out the biggest ' slaughter for a considerable time ! against German troops attempting to escape northward on the mouth ! of the Scheldt, caused the greatest havoc along the Wemeldinge Canal —the route to Rotterdam. Figures for the day's destruction include 105 barges destroyed or damaged, in addition to many locomotives and motor vehicles destroyed or damaged. I Germans Jump from Trains i German troops to-day jumped from escape trains from Holland to Ger'many and ran towards ditches as i planes of the Second Tactical Air I Force switched their all-out effort jto transport lines carrying Germans ■east from the advancing Allied land forces says Reuters correspondent I with the Second Tactical Air Force in Belgium. At least 10 trains were I known to have been destroyed, and 'before evening the total will be 'much greater. . R.A.F. Mosquitoes during the night attacked four trains, one near Deventer, in eastern Holland, and three in the Metz area. After an attack on an ammunition train east of Metz, wagons blew up at intervals and Mosquitoes could feel the explosions iat 3000 feet. j The Allied air forces yesterday pounced on 15 .trainloads of Germans moving to the Toul area and destroyed 15 coaches and damaged others. "Battle of the German Frontier" Marauders and Havocs, flying from both French and British bases, to-day opened the first round of the "Battle of the German Frontier" by bombing immediately ahead of General Patton's southern wing to remove barriers in the path of the advance towards Nancy. The attack saw six separate forces of British medium and light bombers and three waves of French-based Marauders deliver a concentrated bomb load on two bridges spanning the Moselle at Pompey and Custines, about five miles north of Nancy, and the highly-fortified Foret de Haye, just west of the city. The results of the operation were judged excellent. BLOW AT LUFTWAFFE British Official Wireless Rec. 2.30 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 10. Fighters struck another blow at the Luftwaffe to-day, preliminary reports listing 44 planes destroyed on the ground in strafing attacks on southern and western Germany. Six others were shot down in combat.