DUSSELDORF MAIN TARGET

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 295, 10 September 1941, Page 7

DUSSELDORF MAIN TARGET

R.A.F. Over Germany NAZIS SAY BERLIN AGAIN RAIDED (By Telegraph.— Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 9. The main objective in the Royal Air Force offensive on Germany last night was Dusseldorf, where important locomotive works were attacked. Nearly 100 bombers took part in the raid and the great majority reached their objective. Not one was lost. German reports say that British bombers were over central Germany again last night, their targets including Berlin. This report is not mentioned in the British communique. Only a few German planes were over Britain and one of these was destroyed. Bombs were dropped at widely separated points, slight damage and some casualties resulting at places on the north-east coast. It is estimated that well over 200 tons of high explosive bombs were dropped on Berlin on Sunday night, causing colossal damage. Considering the bright moonlight our losses 20 bombers—were not an excessive proportion of the number of planes engaged. Four enemy night-fighters were destroyed. It was one of the R.A.F.’s biggest nights and probably more thau 400 planes were over Germany. The Germans sent about 250 bombers against London in their last big raid on May 10th. Crews’ Experiences. It is now possible to give a fuller picture of Sunday night’s raid from the reports of the crews who took part. Both two and four-engined bombers were employed.- So bright was the moonlight that the crews were able to see the streets of Berlin and the street ' A rear gunner said: “You could easily identify the bigger buildings- It was so bright you could make out traffic moving along some of- the streets. I expect most of it was fire engines. Soon raging fires made even better landmarks as the bombers came in thick and fast. Buildings and streets away from the fires were glowing red in the light of the flames.” Reports from many other stations give a more general picture of the success of the attack. There was an immense fire near Alexander Platz. Smoke from it stretched for miles Jo the east. Bombs were seen to hit buildings, factories, warehouses and railway yards. One crew reported a group of fifty small fires sending up, a column of smoke several thousand feet high. Another crew reported three large fires which they saw for 25 minutes after leaving the city and even then they were only lost sight of because of cloud. There were fires in all parts of the city, in the industrial suburbs as well as in the centre. Some idea of the defences of Berlin and of whaLsome of the R.A.F. crews had to face may be gained from the story of the crew of a Manchester. On the way to Berlin they avoided five - enemy fighters and had no other trouble till they were over the city itself. Hit by Flak. “Then we were hit by flak,” the pilot said, “but went on and bombed. The port engine was found to be rapidly getting hotter and to prevent it from seizing and probably catching lire I feathered the airscrew and stopped the engine. There seemed to be litt-e chance of getting such a long way back but we set a course for home and hoped for the best. Over much of the enemy country we were flying at about 5000 feet and at this height we had to pass through a large belt of searchlights. We got through them all right, but later we had to come down even lower. . T “When we reached the Dutch coast 1 decided to attempt the crossing, though I thought our chances of reaching the English coast were very slight. All the way back the rest of the crew kept jettisoning everything we could spare. Eventually we landed at the first aerodrome after crossing the coast with very little petrol to spare. Not one of us received a scratch, though the bomber was peppered with shrapnel holes throughout. On landing I found that the diughy had been shot away and I got rather a shock when I thought how we might have come down in the sea.” The observer of a Wellington had a very different story to tell. He had been on 42 raids before, but this he described as “One of the best nights I ever had. Everything went like clockwork. The navigation was 0.K., the searchlights didn’t worry us unduly and the flak was not too bad. You could see everything perfectly and we had no trouble .with fighters. We went straight in, found wliat we were looking for and came straight out. Place Like A Map. “We could see the place like a map,” a flight sergeant in another bomber said, “and soon there were many fires, with one in particular blazing large and fierce in the heart, of the city as a further guide to our bombers.” A great many heavy high explosives were seen to burst round a main railway station. Volumes of black smoke poured upward and on the return journey it was long before the crews saw the last glow of the many fires in the east. Berlin’s defences were ready tor tae attack and the R.A.F. crews knew what to expect. Scores of searchlights swept the skies and pursued the invading bombers. Anti-aircraft fire was incessant, and only stopped to let the night fighters approach. “We were clamped in the large beams of searchlights,” a gunner said, and Jerry was pumping up flak as hard as he could. All of a sudden, the flak stopped and 1 saw a Messerschmitt 110 coining up on the starboard quarter. “I gave it a burst and saw my tracer bullets enter the starboard engine. The Messerschmitt caught lire and clashed down. It passed us so close that 1 thought it was going to hit us.” Many Raids. Berlin has now been raided four times in the past eight nights twice by the R.A.F. and twice by the Russian air force. Sunday's raid caused an angry outburst by the Berlin Press, which denounces it as “a loutish trick" and 1 a crime.” ~ The “Nachtausgabe” says the raid was one of the rottenest and most disgusting yet made on Berlin. 'These shameful acts will be avenged, says the paper, and the German sword will .strike witli fearful sharpness till Britain is forced to her knees. All the afternoon papers publish at least a column dealing with the raid. They emphasize the exemplary dis-

cipline of the people and the care devoted to the victims. The German official news agency stated that 27 civilians were killed m the raid. It is also announced in Berlin that 3853 persons were killed in air raids on Germany to August 2.