ENEMY BATTERIES SILENCED

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24280, 10 June 1944, Page 5

ENEMY BATTERIES SILENCED

WORK OFR.A.F. HEAVY BOMBERS.

NEW FACTOR IN WARFARE (8.0. W.) RUGBY, June 8,

When 1000 British heavy bombers roared down to 2000 feet to silence the German coastal batteries in the hours before the landing, a new, decisive factor was introduced into military operations. Dropping astronomic loads on strategic targets had become a Royal Air Force commonplace in the last three years, but the switching of these giant British bombers, each of which can carry a single bomb of over five tons, to actual Army co-operation work is something of which Goering never dreamed. Never before has an army gone into battle supported by such a devastating weight of covering and preparatory bombardments. In the landing area chosen, the Germans relied on 10 great coastal batteries, each as strong as a battleship, sunk in huge concrete casemates and so sited that their combined range and firepower could sweep the beaches with a bombardment under which no men or landing craft could survive; A few hours before the landings the Royal Air Force heavy bombers plastered each battery with 500 tons of high explosive. Individual guns were destroyed, underground electric cables on which the batteries depended were cut, and great mounds of earth were thrown up preventing the sighting of the guns. It was a testimony to the confidence of the Allied command in British heavy bombers and pilots that this operation could be left to the last hours and so achieve the greatest military effect. TACTICAL BOMBING BY LANCASTERS TROOP CONCENTRATIONS IN FRANCE (8.0. W.) RUGBY, June 8. On Wednesday night Lancasters of the Bomber Command were given a tactical target of great importanceconcentrations of German troops and transport round a refuelling point in the forest of Cerisy, through which runs the road from Bayeux to St. Lo. With thick cloud at 7000 ft, the attack had to be at a low level, but even so the target was hidden and everything depended on the efficiency of the pathfinder technique. The crews reported that they'bombed close round the markers. They also saw a large oil fire. Four railway targets attacked by Bomber Command on the same night were all key points of the Grande Centure railway, which makes a wide sweep round Paris. It is a.by-pass railway designed to take goods traffic round instead of through the capital. All the main railway lines in France radiate outwards from Paris and an enormous volume of traffic uses the junctions round the city. Wednesday night’s attack oh junctions and bridges was designed to disorganise points at which German traffic moving from east to west would use the by-pass railways on the way to the battle area.

Tire bombers attacking these railways had to make a deep penetration in moonlight, and German nightfighters reacted strongly. One Halifaic was attacked by three fighters at once and destroyed one of them. At least five enemy aeroplanes were destroyed during the night. Twenty-nine British aircraft are missing.