KIEL AND STETTIN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 277, 19 August 1944, Page 7

KIEL AND STETTIN

Very Large Fires Started LONDON, August 17. In last night’s great R.A.F. attack 70,000 heavy incendiaries were dropped on Stettin and Kiel besides a great weight of high explosives, and very large fires were seen at both ports. At Stettin, smoke came up more than three miles. Very few fighters were seen-. \ Stettin is a principal port on the Baltic, and is becoming more important every day. The railways to East Prussia are choked with supplies, which are being rushed eastward in a desperate effort to stop the Russian advances. Simultaneously. the railways are being used <by thousands of evacuees coming backfrom threatened territory into the interior of the Reich. There is good' reason to believe there is a connexion between the relatively low casualty rate among the bombers with the major attack on German night fighter bases 'on Tuesday by very large forces of Allied aircraft. United States Mustangs, Thunderbolts, and Lightnings which escorted heavy bombers to targets deep in Germany today met the sharpest opposition in several weeks. Groups of interceptors ranging up to 100 in a formation iveie encountered, and the fighters reported the destruction of 32. Only three fighteis did not return. , Hundreds of heavy bombers from Italy today attacked Ploesti and an airfield in Y ugoslavia.