R.A.F. SUCCESSES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 9, 5 October 1940, Page 11

R.A.F. SUCCESSES

Factories Ablaze In Nazi Areas

HAMBURG SUFFERS Bombardment Lasts Nearly Two Hours t British Oflieial Wireless.) RUGBY, October 3. Oil-storage plants, dock installations, and enemy-occupied aerodromes were the chief objectives of last night's widespread raids by aircraft of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command. Bad weather over the greater part of the operations area, with a fully overcast sky and a cloud layer which extended from 6000 feet to 15 feet over the’ Dutch and Belgian coasts, severely hindered the raiders, who also had to contend with ice-forming conditions at low levels.

The heaviest attack v£ the night was launched against Hamburg, where i>. large oil factory and a storage plant were subjected to nearly two hours of intensive bombardment by relays of heavy bombers. Opening the attack shortly after 10 p.m., the first raider scored direct hits on Hie target and started four, separate fires, which soon spread and merged into one great blaze. Highexplosive bombs from the following aircraft struck the oil-storage plant. A salvo which fell in the centre of the target area caused a violent explosion aud an uprush of flames which gave off clouds of thick black smoke. Gaining a firm hold and growing in intensity, this fire was seen by later arrivals as they approached the target, from 50 miles out at sea.

Helped by Light of Fire.

Helped by the light of the fire, Hie second wave of aircraft unloaded its bombs on the oil plant and started a second great blaze. Both fires were still burning strongly, sending great clouds of black smoke billowing across the River Elbe, as the last of the attacking force, turned for home. Other night bombing forces, concentrating on docks and harbours in Germany and enemy-occupied territories, raided Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven, Stettin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Flushing, Ostend and Ymuidcn.

Fires were started near the shipbuilding yards at Hamburg, and at Antwerp sticks of high-explosive bombs were seen to burst across the quay wall and along one side of the dock basin.

The naval dockyard at Wilhelmshaven was subjected to a series of attacks which lasted nearly an hour. Another raiding force which penetrated deep over Germany’s Baltic coast attacked harbour works near Stettin. Other raiders bombed Krupps' armament factory at Essen, where a vivid explosion broke out after the bombing. Attacks on aerodromes were widespread, a total of 13 being bombed during the night’s operations. Blenheims of the Coastal Command yesterday destroyed a bomber which unsuccessfully attacked a British convoy.

A Hudson last night shot down a bomber into the sea. Two British planes have not returned. An Amsterdam message states that seventeen persons were killed and 20 injured in an air raid on Haarlem. Tiie Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that observers at Malmo saw flashes and heard heavy explosions in the direction of Copenhagen in Hie early hours of Thursday. The Danes admit that the British bomlied several parts of Denmark, especially Western Jutland. -Planes later flew over Malmo and dropped two bombs in a parkland and several in Swedish territorial waters.

BERLIN ROUSED British Night Raid LONDON, October 3. Berlin reported that sirens aroused Berliners from their sleep early this morning and forced them to the shelters for an hour and 12 minutes. The raiders, it was stated, concentrated on Hie north-west industrial areas, where explosions were continuous. A German communique says: "Several enemy planes penetrated the northern and western frontier regions of Germany and the occupied territory and also dropped bombs without causing damage to objectives of a military or economic importance.”

According to Reuter messages from Bucharest, travellers from Leipzig say that the German railway system from Leipzig to Vienna has been so badly disorganized that they were forced to change 15 times during the journey to Bucharest, The disorganization was caused by tiie smashing of the line by British bombers. In western Germany the railway system was said to have been even more thoroughly dislocated.

AIR DUELS OVER SEA German Planes Destroyed (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 3. Describing recent air duels over the North Sea, the Air Ministry news service says that a Heinkel 115, a float plane, dived out of dense cloud over the North Sea and dropped two bomb—toward a convoy. Both bombs missed. Believing that he had the sky to himself, the German pilot made ready for a second attack, but a tighter of Hie Coastal Command, escorting the convoy, swooned through a cloud bank and with two machinegun bursts set the enemy on tire. The Heinkel's tanks blew up—drenchinc the nose of the Blenheim with her oil. Near sea level the float plane broke in pieces. Because the windows of the British fighter were so thickly coated with the enemy’s oil, the pilot and navigator had a difficult journey back, but made a safe landing.

Another incident occurred when, while on night patrol off the East Anglian coast, a Hudson of the Coastal Command intercepted two Heinkel bombers. The Hudson singled out. one Heinkel for attack, manoeuvring $o that both the front and rear guns could bo used alternately. The German was destroyed. The other Heinkel fired i short, ineffective burst at long nineand then made off.

GERMAN CLAIMS LONDON, October 3. Bremen radio alleges that 13,000 people have been killed and injured in London "since Hie reprisal attacks began." A German communique Maims that air raids against London and numerous military objectives in south England and the Midlands caused heavy damage.