R.A.F. BOMBING OFFENSIVE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23587, 14 March 1942, Page 7

R.A.F. BOMBING OFFENSIVE

OPERATIONS ON LARGE SCALE CONCENTRATION ON ■ ESSEN (Received March 13, 11 p.m.) (U.P.A.-8.0.W.) LONDON, March 13. Berlin reports that Royal Air Force aeroplanes were over coastal areas of Germany last night, but so far no statement has been released in London. . . An analysis of the February air offensive in the west shows that, in spite of the handicap of bad weather and other limitations, the Bomber Command during January and February dropped a load 50 per cent, greater than during the same months of 1941. The Royal Air Force was out on 17 nights in February over Germany and German-occupied territory, or minelaying in enemy waters. . The main attacks were against Germany itself, Kiel being visited three times and Mannheim twice. Attacks were made also on ports in occupied France and air fields in Holland, the docks at Ostend, the Channel attack on German battleships, and the parachute raid on Bruneval. . By contrast, German raids on Britain were on a small scale. On 19 nights there was “nothing to report.”

A feature of the month was a series of attacks on enemy shipping along the coast of occupied Europe. Bad visibility made observation difficult, but seven enemy vessels are known to have been hit. With the return of favourable weather, the full scale bombing offensive against Germany has been resumed, and is intended to grow in intensity. It is recalled in authoritative quarters at London that last year heavy attacks were made on German industries during the short summer nights, and heavier ones are predicted this year. No large-scale removal of German industrial centres from the west to the east is possible, and the Ruhr factories, like those elsewhere in Germany, have increased during the war. The Ruhr area is vital to the maintenance of the Axis war machine. The bombing now being inflicted on Essen is as heavy as anything experienced in Britain in 1940-41. The bombing of Essen bn several nights in succession is an example of the wellproved policy of concentration on one target which produces excellent results. At the same time there remains the alternative of bombing several targets on one night to spread the destruction over the widest possible area. Both methods have given good results, and are used according to circumstances Similarly, alternative use. is made of precision bombing and the area bombing of industrial targets according to circumstances. Moonlight nights are favourable to the former choice. The method, target, and night are the responsibilities of the Bomber Command, after the general policy has been decided by the War Cabinet and the Defence Command. Bombing pohcv in recent months has been governed by two dominant purposes, of giving the utmost help to Russian operations on land and to the Royal Navy in Its task of protecting Allied maritime supply routes. Evidence is accumulating of the results of the bombing of German industries. Such evidence often comas months after the raids, but is no less valuable and favourable. It is officially stated that one of a small number of enemy aircraft which approached the coast of Britain on Thursday was shot down into the sea by a Royal Air Force fighter off the Welsh coast. AIRMAN AWARDED VC. ATTACK ON GERMAN BATTLESHIP SCHARNHORST HIT BY TORPEDO (Received March 13, 11 p.m.) LONDON, March 13. The King has approved the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Flying ■ Officer Kenneth Campbell for outstanding valour in an attack on the German battleship Scharnhorst nearly a year ago. Flying Officer Campbell was aged 24. He is the thirty-second V.C. of the war and (he eighth won by an airman. In the attack on the Scharnhorst, Flying Officer Campbell was accompanied by three sergeants, one of them a 19-year-old Canadian, James Scott. In a Coastal Command torpedo-car-rying aircraft, Flying Officer Campbell swept in to make his attack at less than mast height in the face of an intense barrage of anti-aircraft fire. He launched a torpedo at point-blank range. The Scharnhorst was damaged below the water-line and had to be taken back to dock for repairs. Flying Officer Campbell and his crew did not return, and the story of his attack has been pieced together from information gathered over a long period.

New Military Corps.— A new military corps is to be formed, comprising the entire engineering side of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, the maintenance personnel of the Royal Army Service Corps, with a few exceptions, and a large part of the mechanical and maintenance personnel of the Royal Engineers. These far-reaching measures of reorganisation entail extensive administrative changes and largescale transfers of personnel.—Rugby, March 18.