DAY ATTACKS BY R.A.F.

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23415, 23 August 1941, Page 9

DAY ATTACKS BY R.A.F.

STEELWORKS BOMBED AT IJMUIDEN

BIG FIGHTER ESCORTS USED

(U.P.A.) LONDON, August 21. Major attacks were' maintained throughout daylight to-day by the Royal Air Force. The three commands co-operated to launch a series of nonstop drives over the Channel. Early in the morning, Blenheims, strongly escorted by fighters, made three separate attacks, the main target being a steelworks at the Dutch port of Ijmuiden. The plant was bombed from a height of only 50 feet. It is of considerable strategic importance, turning out steel for Diesel cylinders and hydraulic apparatus. The rolling mill was battered in the first attack, and the second wave found its marks on a row of chimneys in the centre of the works.

Two offensive sweeps were made over northern France, and industrial targets and railways round St. Omer and Bethune were attacked. Enemy shipping was also attacked successfully. Hundreds of fighters were used, and so successful was their support that no bombers were lost.

Fourteen British fighters did not return. The pilot of one is reported safe. Other formations attacked E-boats in the Channel, raking them with machine-gun fire. One vessel was left smoking.

As a result of the strict checking system in claiming results, which the Fighter Command insists upon, only one Messerschmitt is claimed to have been definitely destroyed up to 6 p.m. This was seen to crash, but it is believed that many others shared its fate, though low clouds prevented observation. Many pilots’ reports contain such comments as: “He spiralled down

MR FRASER'S ESCAPE

CHANGE OF PLANS

SAVES LIFE

(Received August 22, 11.30 p.m.)

LONDON, August 22,

The last-moment decision of the Prime Minister of New Zealand (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) to postpone his departure from Britain until the return of Mr Churchill and the arrival of the Canadian Prime Minister (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) saved his life.

He had booked for America aboard the ferry aeroplane which crashed on August 15 killing Major Arthur Purvis, Director-General of the British Purchasing Commission in the United States, and all others aboard.

into a cloud out of control,” and, “I saw pieces come off the Messerschmitt and it dived vertically into a cloud, and probably crashed.” One fighter pilot who attacked an Eboat from 1000 feet reports a hit by cannon shells in the ship’s magazine. Violent explosions followed.

Shortly before dark on Thursday evening Royal Air Force fighters shot down an enemy bomber into the sea off the east coast.

The Australian High Commissioner (Mr S. M. Bruce) heard several thrilling stories from pilots of one of the first Australian fighter squadrons to operate from Britain. One sergeant pilot told how a few days ago he had taken part in an offensive sweep and on the way back from France spotted a Messerschmitt 109, which was easy meat to him. He gave the German a few seconds of cannon and machinegun fire, and then heard a comrade warning him over the radio telephone that there were “three of them diving on your tail.” “I went into a steep left-hand turn and managed to get inside the Germans, but one of them was coming head on at me. I can hardly remember pressing the gun button, but to my horror the German came straight towards my Spitfire. I must have killed him .with about the first shot, and his Messerschmitt passed about three feet over my head before it crashed.” When he landed safely at the base this pilot found that there was only one bullet-hole in his aircraft.

In a little more than three weeks this squadron has destroyed 18 German fighters, and there are three probables oa the list. It has lost five machines. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands visited a R6yal Air Force aerodrome where Dutch fighter pilots are in training. The Prince, who piloted his own aeroplane, arrived before noon and immediately took to the sky again as leader of a training formation of nine machines, all manned by Dutch pilots. Afterwards he addressed the Dutch pilots. “I am proud that, thanks to the co-operation of the Royal Air Force, we are now able to train Dutchmen as fighter pilots here in England, so that shortly we may have many Dutch squadrons in action with the Royal Air Force," he said. “These squadrons will fly Spitfires presented by the Netherlands East Indies. I myself am grateful for the excellent training which the Royal Air Force has given me, and I have no doubt that all of you appreciate the facilities given by Britain. I wish you the best of luck during and after your training.”

BRITAIN’S AIR OFFENSIVE

BIG GERMAN ATTACKS SURPASSED

COMPARISON WITH LAST AUGUST

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, August 21. A comparison of the Royal Air Force offensive this August with the fighting last August, when Britain was attacked by the whole Luftwaffe, was made in a war commentary broadcast by Air Commodore R. V. Goddard. It was his farewell broadcast, as Group Captain Belmore will give the air commentaries in future. Air Commodore Goddard said: The Luftwaffe in the first three weeks of last August made 4000 flights over Britain in daylight. British air action over the occupied territory and enemy shipping from Britain this August has exceeded 4000 flights, whereas the British losses have been only one-tenth of the German losses last year. “The British night effort, in spite of bad weather, has been more than double the enemy’s night effort last August. “This does not mean that we have been attacking Germany itself as hard in daylight as the Luftwaffe hit England last August, since we have not had to relearn the lessons of mass bombing in daylight: but these operations are helping to reduce Germany’s capacity for war against Russia and Britain.

“Nevertheless, though air action is swift its effects are gradual. We don’t know what’s going to happen next—nor does Hitler—but we do know our prospects are very much better. We

can look at the war more objectively—offensively from our point of view.”

Air Commodore Goddard said that making people anxious was one of the main objects of aerial warfare, under which he included bombing, propaganda, and gossip. “Fortunately, Hitler has got his people to believe that Germany in 1918 went rotten inside under the stress of war with Britain before the German armies were defeated. They know that he feared to fight us again, so that there’s plenty of reason for anxiety in Germany. The seeds are sown.

“Air war succeeds by making people change their minds. The ideas which our bombs have got to hammer into the heads of Goebbelised Germans are the ideas in the Roosevelt-Churchill declaration. If lam not much mistaken it will become the Gospel of the German nation—and of other nations too before the, war is done. Without the declaration our bombers were acting destructively, but with it they act constructively. Maybe it will take a long time. But it has given us an aim that we must follow objectively, with the offensive spirit. Meanwhile the Nazis are being constrained to face the music—a concert in “V” sharp performed by the band of brothers of the Royal Air Force.”