MAINZ BOMBED AGAIN

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23716, 14 August 1942, Page 5

MAINZ BOMBED AGAIN

BIG FIRES STARTED BY R.A.F. RAID

WEIGHT OF ATTACKS ON GERMANY (Received August 13, 11 p.m.)

(N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 13. The German city of Mainz, a railway centre and inland port at the junction of the Rhine and Main rivers, was bombed again by a strong force of Royal Air Force bombers last night. Airfields in the Low Countries were also attacked. Five British aircraft are missing. In the previous night’s raid a strong force' dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on Mainz, including more than 50,000 incendiaries. Mainz has railway waggon works and chemical factories, and handles a considerable grain traffic. In the target area there are—or were—64 warehouses. Special crews circled the city during Tuesday’s raid for the purpose of reporting the progress of operations. A member of one of these crews, a squadron leader, described how within four minutes of the opening of the attack three large fires were raging. At the end of the attack there were more fires than the airmen were able to count. British airmen to-day flew over to see what Mainz looked like in daylight. Dense black clouds of smoke were still rising to a height of 15,000 feet. Figures were released in London tonight showing how the Royal Air Force has been balancing the British bombing account with Germany. It is clear from the details that there is already a tremendous credit balance in Britain’s favour.

Fewer than 200 bombers dropped more than 450 tons of bombs on Osnabrueck during the recent Royal Air Force raid, more than the Germans have ever dropped on Britain in one night. The bombs included between 40 and 50 of the 40001b type. From July 12 to August 11 the Royal Air Force undertook harassing operations on 26 days, and only three periods of 24 hours were without raids. Of the 13 night raids made on Germany only one was by fewer than 100 aircraft. One was by more than 600 aircraft, and 10 by between 200 and 450 machines. During July 13,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Germany, compared with 3500 in the same month of 1940 and 8500 in July, 1941. Minelaying has also been many times increased. Air experts are of the opinion that given good weather there is no reason why bombing should not continue on the same scale. The increase has been made while more and more bombers have been sent to other theatres of war.

Goebbels writes in his newspaper about what he calls “the bitter wounds Germany is suffering at the hands of the Royal Air Force.” He dismisses the British 1000-bomber attacks as propaganda raids without military significance, and says that the Luftwaffe will make heavy reprisal attacks when more aircraft can be spared from the Russian front.

ENEMY RAIDS ON BRITAIN

FIVE KILLED IN COAST TOWN (Received August 13, 11 p.m.) LONDON, August 13.

London had a short alert last night, for the third night running. Raiders were also over the East Anglian coast and south-east Scotland. Bombs were dropped at a few scattered points. Two enemy aeroplanes bombed a place on the south-west coast.of England and killed five persons. A number of houses were damaged. A farmer and his four sons foiled a German attempt yesterday morning to set their wheat crop on fire. They cut trenches though the wheat and flung soil on the incendiaries. Most of the crop was saved.

DAMAGED BOMBER BROUGHT HOME

N.Z. * PILOT’S EXPLOIT (Special Correspondent.) (N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 11. Flight Sergeant F. A. Schaw, of Palmerston North, was the pilot of a Halifax bomber which reached England after a raid against the Ruhr, in spite of a hit from anti-aircraft fire and cannon shells from a Junkers 88. The fabric and stays were ripped away and the starboard rudder elevator was put out of action. Shells burst across the wings, striking the port outer engine. The petrol tanks were also damaged. The Halifax dropped from 11,000 feet to ,5000 feet. Flight Sergeant Schaw said: ‘‘The starboard iouter engine started to stutter, and then all the three remaining engines packed up. I gave the order to abandon the aircraft, and the navigator, radio operator, and flight engineer jumped. Then at 800 feet we were too low for anyone else to jump, but suddenly the port inner engine picked up and I was able to guide the aircraft between two trees, the wings hitting the branches, I landed in a turnip field.” Flight Sergeant Schaw saw the port wing-tip on fire almost immediately. He put out the flames by smothering them with a parachute and then stamping on them.