BRITISH AND GERMAN AIR RAIDS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23051, 20 June 1940, Page 7

BRITISH AND GERMAN AIR RAIDS

R.A.F. Heavily Damages Nazi Industrial Centres

ELEVEN PERSONS KILLED IN ENGLAND

(UHITED PRESS 4.SSOCIA.TIOK —COPYRIGHT.) (Received June 19, 11 p.m.) LONDON, June 19. A great British air raid on military objectives in Germany on Monday night was followed by German air raids last night along the English coast from Yorkshire to the Thames estuary. The Germans’ raids were the heaviest Britain has experienced. Seven enemy aeroplanes were shot down. Two British machines have not returned from the attacks on Germany. It was officially announced that 11 persons were killed and 14 injured in the raids on eastern England last night. Most of the casualties occurred in one locality, where bpmbs fell on a row of houses. No severe damage was done to any military objective.

The Air Ministry announced that the Royal Air Force heavily bombed military objectives over a wide si 6a in the Rhineland, the Ruhr, and north-west Germany on Monday night. A widespread raid was carried out over the Ruhr Valley, and tremendous damage was inflicted. In a series of strong attacks, incendiary bombs were dropped on the oil tanks at Hamburg, and in spite of unfavourable weather, many fires were started. The raid lasted three hours.

J nd }** tr ! aI centres and military objectives In the north of Italy were also subjected to constant bombing attacks, and serious damage was inflicted. The air-raid sirens could be heard constantly in Switzerland,

In the raids on England bombs drop, ped near an East Coast village demolished an empty house and damaged others. Two bombers which circled over a Yorkshire town were driven off by heavy anti-aircraft gunfire, but they returned and dropped salvoes of bombs.

Loud explosions were also beard in a north-east coast town. Towns on the Thames estuary were also severely shaken. Some of the bombers flew so high that they were beyond the range of searchlights. Others were so low that they were fired on. by machineguns from the ground. Details of the great British air raid on military objectives in Germany were revealed last night, says a British Official Wireless message. Resuming their offensive after a period of inactivity enforced by unfavourable weather, bombers of the Royal Air Force attacked military objectives in Germany at Gelsenkirchen, Hornburg, Wanne, Eickel, Essen, Dolbergen Hamburg, Aachen, Duisberg, Rheydt, Cologne, and Coblenz.

In the Ruhr Valley, oil storage centres at Gelsenkirchen, Homburg, Wanne, and Eickel were subjected to a series of attacks by strong forces of aircraft. High explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped on the Homburg oil tanks. The many fires started in the target area culminated in one great conflagration which after burning strongly for about 20 minutes, died away, leaving a column of black smoke towering nearly 2000 feet into the air. Repeated Hits Two separate fuel installations were attacked at Gelsenkirchen, a great industrial centre to the north-east of* Essen. Both targets were repeatedly hit. Oil tanks were set alight and an enormous green flash lit up the centre of the largest refinery.. Successive relays of aircraft set more tanks alight and demolished buildings and railway lines and junctions. Strong opposition was encountered from the ground defences, but although two aircraft engaged in the operation were hit, both were able to complete their task and return t safely to their At Wanne and Eickel, near Bochum, fires started were still seen burning two hours later, , _ nll Large oil storage plants at Dollibergen, east of Hanover, and at Hami burg, were also attacked in the early hours of this morning. Incendiary bombs dropped by the first raiders to reach Dollbergen started fires on such a scale that the flames were visible from 35 miles away. Refinery buildings in tlie centre of the plant were repeatedly hit and storage tanks were set ablaze. At the height of the raid the whole target area was described by one of the bombers’ crews as a mass of flames. >. /

A great blaze visible from many miles away was also started at Hamburg, where one of the largest oil storage plants in north-west Germany was hit. At this target a particularly violent explosion occurred a -full minute after a salvo of bombs had been seen to burst.

Other formations of night raiders attacked marshalling yards and busy railway junctions from Hamm in the north to Aachen in, the west, andr along the Rhine from Duisberg to Coblenz. A salvo of high-explosive bombs which fell in the middle of a crowded marshalling yard at Hamm started a fire which could be seen by the raiders’ crew for 30 minutes after leaving the town. Goods yards at Aachen, Rheydt, and Cologne were repeatedly hit, and atCoblenz and Essen the main-line tracks as well as the marshalling yards, were hit, the damage inflicted on the metals being plainly visible in the bright moonlight. At Duisberg, in the Ruhr, many hits were registered in the centre of th? main marshalling yards, and a series of blue fires broke out as if the electrified system had been hit. Three aerodromes in Germany, where night flying was in progress, were also bombed. At one, near Barmen, large fires were started among the aerodrome buildings. In a surprise attack on the Amsterdam airport of Schiphol, hangars and buildings on the north-east side of the landing ground were hit, and an enemy aircraft caught by a low-flying British raider as it was about to land was attacked by ma-chine-gun fire from both front and rear turrets and was sent diving headlong into the ground. Italian aeroplanes attacked the French Riviera between Toulon and Frejus. Italian parachutists landed, two of whom were disarmed by women. French fighters shot down 10 Italian aeroplanes. An Air Ministry communique states: “Royal Air Force fighters on Monday night shot down two enemy bombers over the north-east coast or France.” “On Monday evening,” states an Air Ministry bulletin, “a section of three Spitfires met three Junkers 88 dive-bombers between Boulogne and Le Touquet. Each Spitfire pilot took one of the Junkers. One was seen to crash In the sea, and another dived into the ground with flames pouring from its starboard motor. The rear guns of the third had already been silenced before the Spitfire pilot made the final attack.

“On its way home from northern France in the small hours of yesterday morning, a Royal Air Force Blenheim fighter saw a Heinkel 115 seaplane silhouetted far beneath against the sea.

RAF. RAIDS IN AFRICA

Bases

Attacks on Italian

CASUALTIES IN MALTA (BRITISH OTTICUI. WIRELESS.) (Received June 19, 8 p.m.) RUGBY, June 18. Further raids by Royal Air, Fore# bombers were carried out on Massawa yesterday. On the first occasion, fires were started in a compound near fuel dumps. In the second raid, a petrol installation was' damaged. - Various reconnaissance flights were undertaken and much valuable data were obtained. In one of these flights in the Asmara and Gura area, a defence post was destroyed. Bombers of the South African Aip Force attacked Bardera in Italian East Africa, and direct hits were registered on an enemy slipway, barracks, and wireless station. Four enemy aircraft are believed to have been destroyed. At Naghalli, enemy aircraft on the ground were attacked and also a lorry park. A hangar was set on fire, and it is estimated that at least three enemy aircraft were destroyed by direct hits registered on a motor transport park and barracks. All the aircraft engaged returned safely. There were further air raids on Malta yesterday, resulting in little damage. One enemy aircraft is believed to have been shot down.

It is officially announced that 37 civilians have been killed and 42 seriously injured in air raids since Italy’s entry into the war. Those killed include nine children, most of whom, were under 10.

Nairobi reports say that eight Italian aircraft were damaged and three were destroyed by fire in a series of heavy bombing raids carried out by units of the Rhodesian and South African air forces in southern Abyssinia on Sunday. Aerodromes at Naghalii and Avello were heavily punished, as well as an entrenched camp at Mega, where transports, hangars, and wireless station were attacked. Airmen and soldiers walking on the aerodrome were all taken unawares, and were bombed and machine-gunned.

The Italian raids on small towns along the Egyptian coast have been singularly unsuccessful, and there is no doubt of the Allied superiority. The Italian raids were carried out at a great height, proving that they were not aiming at any particular military objective. The Italian air force is obviously frightened to death of facing the British fighters. Whenever a British fighter appears,/they make off as fast as possible. An Italian communique states:— “During the night of June 16-17 Italian aviation successfully bombed the naval base of Bizerte and military objectives in Corsica and Malta. Our submarines sank two enemy tankers.” The communique added . that military operations in North Africa continued along the Italian frontier in Cyrenaica. -

He dived 9000 feet to the attack, and after a 10-mile chase up the coast, shot it down in flames.” The bombing of a German destroyer was effected by a Lockheed Hudson, aircraft of the Coastal Command early yesterday morning. An Air Ministry bulletin states: “The aircraft was engaged on a reconnaissance over the North Sea, and when near the German island of Nor* deney, the pilot saw several German destroyers at anchor. ■ He dived on them and let go his bombs. One scored a direct hit amidships on one of th« destroyers. Volumes of smoke cam® from the German vessel.

“The pilot circled around examining the results of his attack, and smoke was still issuing from the destroyer when the aircraft turned away and set a course for its base."