GREAT DAM BROKEN IN ITALY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 188, 8 May 1944, Page 5

GREAT DAM BROKEN IN ITALY

German Defence Zone ALLIED DIVE-BOMBING SUCCEEDS (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) RUGBY, May 6. Kittyhawks and Mustangs yesterday afternoon broke the great Pescara dam in Italy by dive-bombing, says ■ a Naples correspondent. Twenty minutes after the first Mustangs had cracked the iron sluicegate, a wall of water was seen moving downstream toward Pescara, followed -by high waves. The town of Pescara is only about 10 miles behind the German front line on the Adriatic sector, and the dam, where there is an electricity generating stat.ou, is some 20 miles up the river from the coast. , , ... The Naples correspondent s.ajs tna, the first breaching of the sluice gates was achieved by Sergeant Alexander Guguid, from Dyce, near Aberdeen. Water immediately poured through the gap. After the dive bombing the Mustangs climoed to over 5000 ft. and the pilots watched the effect of the .attack. One said: “Upstream the dam bail emptied and we could see the stream narrowing. Well below the sluice th? water was running at a high level. The river before had been almost dry ana we watched the sand disappear as the bed filled up.” Waters Subsided. Yesterday afternoon the river was reported empty west of the Torre dam. The flood waters downstream had already subsided because of the width of the bed. which normally holds little water. It is not yet possible to assess the full damage to the German communications. The breaking of the dam is regarded as a great achievement. The dam is one of eastern Italy’s chief sources of hydroelectric power. Rome derives some of its power from the station. No planes were lost in the raid. The Naples correspondent of the British United Press says that the air crews, specially trained for weeks before the raid, were briefed to make a power dive through heavy flak. The bombs had crash into a small target area from a low level, because heavy underwater explosions were'required to crack the iron sluice gates. The raid was strategically important.. The dam water flooded supply and concentration areas behind General Kesselring’s east coast defences. It is recalled in London that the Italians in 1934 released the water through the sluices with disastrous results and flooded Pescara town to a depth of three feet, the water not sub siding for a week. Australian Kittyhawk bomber pilots who scored hits on the dam said they saw debris hurtle into the air.