HUNS HARASSED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1945, Page 5

HUNS HARASSED

R.A.F. OFFENSIVE German Troop Movements Disrupted British Official Wireless Rec. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 2. Mosquitoes of the R.A.F. Second Tactical Air Force made one of their longest sorties from Continental bases on Thursday night. They once again attacked the German rail network in the Ruhr area. Some aircraft patrolled as far as 350 miles from the base, striking targets within 80 miles of Berlin. Their object was to destroy and harass German troops moving east over the railways north of the Ruhr. A secondary task was to harass the evacuation traffic moving west from the Berlin area. Bad weather prevented observation of all results, but first reports indicate that three railway yards with over a hundred trucks and four trains were attacked with bombs and cannon fire. Flak was intense. Throughout Thursday, day and night, the Bomber Command maintained the offensive against Germany. Between 1400 and 1500 aircraft took part in these attacks, the great majority bombing key railway targets on the Western Front. But Berlin was not forgotten. The capital had two attacks during the night. The first and heaviest was shortly before 8.30 p.m., and the second in the early hours of Friday. More Mosquitoes bombed Berlin last night than on any previous night. An attack on Munchen-Gladbach, in the Rhine Valley, in the afternoon, and three attacks on Ludwigshafen, Mains and Siegen in darkness, were all designed to prevent the enemy from hurrying troops and equipment from the West to the Eastern Front. Ludwigshafen, Mains and Siegen are all key railway points in the southern part of the front, and troops and trains were known to be passing through them on their way east. Flak was not particularly heavy, but fighters and fighter flares were reported both over the towns attacked and along the routes, though never in such strength as seriously to interfere with the bombing. Fires sprang up—the fires in Ludwigshafen could be seen from 100 miles away, and there were 2xplosions, particularly at Mains.