ANOTHER DEVASTATING ATTACK ON BERLIN

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13331, 18 December 1943, Page 3

ANOTHER DEVASTATING ATTACK ON BERLIN

, r FORCE OF LANCASTERS AGAIN POUND GERMAN CAPITAL

TOTAL OF 1500 TONS OF BOMBS DROPPED IN LATEST RAID

mirE FIRES STARTED AND CENTRE OP CITY 11 HEAVILY BATTERED

London, December 17

D tails have been released of last night’s devastating attack ,• jt lasted half an hour—3o minutes in which 1500 tons 01,1 vT ibs' were dropped. This brings the total weight of bombs ° ed on the German capital this year to 15,000 tons. st n ight’s attack was timed for the earliest possible moment order to beat the moon. By 8.30 the bombers had turned for some of the Lancasters which carried out the raid ,an uneventful journey and saw no enemy fighters over the r fan capital, others had to fight all the way. One pilot was ,er "ked by a Junkers 88 which came from astern and pumped attaC 0 n shells and bullets into the Lancaster from close range. The anll (ninner returned the fire with more than a thousand rounds. [f ar was hit and disappeared and the Lancaster went on !? 6 w ay to the target on three engines, with one wing and the trol tank holed and with an dinghy hanging from it. pe Another pilot described an attack by a rocket gun. “I saw , rockets following us,” he said. They were coming towards us horizontally from several thousand yards away. We dived and saw nothin 0, more.” The track of the bombers across the German capital last night •asmarked by a trail of fire exactly parallel to the line of attack. Although reconnaissance pilots have been over Berlin day after *j , all (| sometimes twice a day since the battle for the capital win on November 18, the photographs they have brought back kve shown nothing but unbroken cloud. It was the same last nHit but the Pathfinder flares shone clearly through the clouds as°the bombers waited for their run. _ v Reports from Stockholm to-day say that the centre of Berlin was heavily battered. One correspondent says huge fires were started and communications badly crippled, ' Targets in Northern Prance and Western Germany were also attacked last night by the Royal Air Force. The night’s operations cist us 30 bombers. Pour enemy fighters were shot down over Berlin.