TARGETS IN SOUTHWEST GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 7, 3 October 1941, Page 7

TARGETS IN SOUTHWEST GERMANY

R.A.F. Heavy Bombers FIGHTERS ACTIVE OVER CHANNEL (British Official Wireless.) (Received October 2, 11.5 p.m.) RUGBY, October 2. Heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force attacked targets in south-west Germany last night. Berlin radio admitted that some damage was caused in this area. An Air Ministry communique states: “During a sweep over the Channel early 'on Wednesday afternoon our fighters destroyed two enemy fighters, without loss to themselves. Two of our fighters are missing from a patrol made over the Channel later in the day.” The Air Ministry news service states: “The Fighter Command’s latest Hurricanes attacked a formation of eight enemy E-boats off the French coast on Wednesday evening. They dived on the E-boats and all the pilots saw their shells and machinegun -1)111lets going home. Each pilot made two attacks. Members of the crew of one boat were seen to fall into the sea, while another boat sent up sheets of Hames. All the German vessels were brought to a standstill and one of the pilots reported that he could see in his mirror dense columns of smoke arising from one vessel as lie left.” . Flying over France on their way to attack the industrial and ship-building centres of Nantes and St. Nazaire on Tuesday night, Beaufort aircraft of the Coastal Command swept so low over towns and villages that the people rushed from their houses to flash victory signs with pocket torches. When the Beauforts arrived over Nantes the crews saw two large buildings, “as big as half a dozen hangars,” outlined by the moon. They were part of an extensive factory- Sticks of high explosives and incendiary bombs, states the Air Ministry news service, were unloaded. The buildings were left wrecked and in flames. The fires were raging so that the pilots could see the blaze far away. At Stettin and Hamburg. Meanwhile the renewed attacks on Stettin and Hamburg were fully as effective as on the previous night. At Stettin the fires were very widespread. The flames lit up the waterways and many other places which pointed the way to the docks and railways. They also lit up oil storage tanks, and when these in turn were bombed clouds of black smoke showed the contents to be burning. Details of blazing buildings could be picked out and one rear-gunner saw the roof of a large building “sent sky high.” Members of another crew counted 24 separate fires as they came away. When they had flown 50 miles a red glow still tinted the clouds.

Heavy explosions and flames in the dock areas and bursts in the railways were seen by the crews which attacked Hamburg. A ' thin haze which lay over the city was showered with continual flashes of bursting bombs. One aircraft, after it bad released its bombs, flew along the river Elbe for many miles at less than 100 feet, with both gunners shooting up all the ships they could see. Whitleys and Hampdens, as well as Wellingtons, made up the force which at the same hour was attacking Cherbourg. Here the moon shone brilliantly. Our aircraft left great clouds of smoke, shot with the glow of many fires.