RAID ON KIEL

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 281, 22 August 1940, Page 9

RAID ON KIEL

Further Damage Done To Dockyard

R.A.F. OBJECTIVES

Thirty Aerodromes

Attacked

(British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) LONDON, August 20. An Air Ministry communique dealing with bombing activities carried out by the R.A.F. during last night reports a considerable number of raids, including 30 on aerodromes. Various oil tanks and refineries also received attention, as did the Kiel naval base. Three aircraft were lost in all these operations.

It is learned that about 40 loud explosions, apparently anti-aircraft fire, were heard in western suburbs of Berlin during last night’s alarm. German officials stated that two British planes flew over Berlin, one of which reached Tegel, nine miles north of the capital, and dropped numerous flares but no bombs.

The Air Ministry, giving a detailed account of the night’s attacks, states that the bombers which raided the Kiel naval dockyard scored numerous direct hits and inflicted heavy damage. A salvo of ‘bombs burst on the main basin, and six bombs hit an underground oil store. Other bombs fell in the shipyards south of the main basin. The raiders' encountered intense and well directed anti-aircraft fire.

Rocked by Explosion

In u raid on an oil store at Hanover one bomber, flying at 3000 feet, was rocked by the force of a great explosion which was accompanied by a sheet of flame 200 ft. high.

The railway yard at Hamm, the largest assembly point for goods traffic in Germany, received its fifty-second visit. Lines of high explosive bombs were seen to fall down the centre of the yard, and 20 separate fires kindled by incendiary bombs in all parts of the target area were seen to be spreading rapidly. , In the course of a second attack on the great oil refineries and storage plants near Bordeaux, raiding aircraft flying at 2000 feet felt heat from fires which were started by ‘bombs. Blenheims of the Coastal Command took the aerodrome at St. Omer completely by surprise. They found a flare path lighted in readiness for the returning Nazi airmen. One Blenheim was signalled to come. The pilot replied with a load of bombs. Among the other aerodromes in F/auce that were bombed was St, Levert, where fires were visible from England, and also the Villa Coublay military aerodrome in Faris, where hangars and the landing ground were hit. The Blenheims turned the St. Omer aerodrome into a mass of flames, and later attackers repeatedly hit hangars. The R.A.F. dropped 10 tons of high explosive bombs and numerous incendiary bombs in an attack on an extensive electricity power station ’ in Zschornwitz, 25 miles north of Leipzig, causing a great explosion and a series of fires. Bombers attacked German oil storage depots at Salzbergen and Ostermoor, and also attacked tliO Dortmund-Ems Canal. Bombs straddled an important bridge over the Weser-Elbe canal, and at. an adjoining railway dislocated railway traffic over a wide area. Damage was also done to rail junctions in Bremen, Wunstorff and Geseke.

BRITISH REGRETS Planes Over Switzerland BERNE, August 20. It is officially stated that the British Government has expressed the deepest regrets for violation of Swiss 'territory ■by British planes proceeding to Germany and Italy. DOMINIONS IN WAR Representation In Britain (Received August 21, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 20. The Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald ‘Sinclair, in the House of Commons, referring to the suggested Dominion representation in the War Cabinet, said, “It would be difficult to include representation of ail the Dominions. We have an admirable method of association of the Dominions with the War Cabinet, decisions aud also with framing the policy on which the War Cabinet. proceeds. "There is great: force in the argument that inclusion of Imperial statesmen would be symbolic of the Empire unity, but. surely the contribution of each Dominion to our war effort: is the greatest, symbol of unity." TRAINS STOPPED Between Unoccupied And Occupied France LONDON, August 20. Vichy reports that all railway traffic between occupied and unoccupied ‘France has been suspended under a German orfler which was made without any reason being published.