MIGHTY RAIDS ON GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 260, 31 July 1944, Page 5

MIGHTY RAIDS ON GERMANY

Hamburg Fired Again

(British Official Wireless.) (Received July 30, 5.40 p.m.)

RUGBY, July 29. The Air Ministry reports that the R.A.F. Bomber Command last night dispatched well over 1000 aircraft, with the main objectives Stuttgart and Hamburg. Thick cloud toward the end of the attack on Stuttgart made it difficult to observe the results, but there was less cloud over Hamburg, and the crews reported large fires in

the target area. Mosquitoes attacked Frankfurt, "here were numerous combats in Germany, and at least 21 enemy fighters were shot down and many more probably destroyed or damaged. In northern France two forces of Malifaxes made further attacks on a supply depot near the Pas de Calais town of Watten (believed to be connected with the threatened use of long-range rockets). Mines were also laid in enemy. waters. Sixty-two of our aircraft are missing. More than 1100 United States heavy bombers, including Fortresses and Liberators, went to Germany this morning, attacking Leuna synthetic oil refinery at Merseburg for the second successive .day. and also attacking targets in the vicinity of Bremen. The weather was mixed, some formations bombing visually through breaks iu the cloud and others using the pathfinder instruments. The bombers were escorted strongly. Important Oil Source. The Lenua factory is the largest of those synthetic oil factories in Germany which are still producing, and, in spite of its capacity having been cut by several previous attacks, it has still been an important source of synthetic petroleum, ammonia and other nitrates used in explosives. Liberators this morning tjlso attacked German aerodromes at Juvincourt. and Laon-Couvrron, north-east of Paris. Clouds made pathfinders necessary and the results were not observed. As many as 50 enemy fighters were reported by some of the formations attacking Merseburg, and a number of dogfights ensued. Our fighters also strafed ground targets in Germany and France, destroying three parked aircraft, and machinegunned more than 40 locomotives, 25 railway cars and a dozen motorvehicles. Twenty German interceptors were reported shot down by the fighters, and the bomber crews reported 15 more. Seventeen of the bombers and six of the fighters did not return.