EARLIER RAIDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 96, 23 April 1940, Page 9

EARLIER RAIDS

ATTACK ON AALBORG

THE ENEMY SURPRISED

(British Official Wireless;)

RUGBY, April 21. -

Details are now available of • th« British raids- against airfields in Den-' 1 ark and Norway. '' - t The attack on Aalborg appeared to, take the enemy completely by surprise. The British aircraft appeared' singly, and the first to reach the tar-., get found the aerodrome plainly;marked with full night-flying illumiria--tions. There was no time for the, ground batteries to go into .action, ,and;. the only opposition came at first from,-, one searchlight, which was quickly^ put out when the bomber's rear gun- ■' ncr sent a burst of fire down the beam.-,

A large German troop air-transport", coming in to land with .its navigations lights on found itself suddenly - as-. ■ sailed by machine-gun fire from the ' British bomber and, opening up its engines, escaped into the clouds to; avoid being shot down. Flying at a low altitude above the aerodrome, the British bomber then released a salvo '■ of high-explosive bombs which dam-, aged the main hangar. '' • The following, aircraft hampered the ground defences. They were met, '■ however, by heavy anti-aircraft., and. machine-gun fire. Successive attacks I were made on the aerodrome at vary-.-ing heights, and three fires were seen;., to break out. A number of blue and/, , yellow searchlights were seen over, the aerodrome during the latter stages of the raid. " , - | GERMAN PLANE ESCAPES. | The pilot of one aircraft in thi» iraid said: "My aircraft was the first lof the formation to reach the aero; j drome, the navigation lights of .whu% ! were on. There was also a flare path ! out. . While looking for a suitable . i target, we flew practically alongside a-. ' German transport aircraft. It was „ signalling, presumably asking for per-, i mission to land. My rear gunner im-' mediately gave him something else to think about, and we managed to get in,, a good burst of fire before the German I disappeared intoMhe clouds. We were . flying right at the base of the clouds lat this time, so the pilot of the .trans--. port plane had only to pull his stick • ! back/and up he went into the clouds, , "That little jaunt over, we decided , !togo in and bomb; We could set three hangars in a half-moon shape., Wt- made our run over some billets and a wireless mast, and the rear and front gunners were both strafing uw I aerodrome as we flew over and,dropped our, bombs. .It must havj. 'been a shock for them, "^y.-™----obviously not expecting us and w«.. met no opposition of any kind. Most , of the ground lights went out after* the first explosion, and a solitary., searchlight came into action. THE STAVANGEB VISIT. While the raid on Aalborg was in S b^ln^y. G^aeSm^ SIX attacked with high-exp^sive - and incendiary bombs, and dF*? a g f ? was done to the bases and to aircraft began rtjjßJr -' before midnight and, as. on the previous occasions, was carried out by a number of aircraft which attacked wiX a Seconds by an explo s .on. Sty -all the aircraft engaged m the raid returned safely to their bases. SUCCESS AT KEISTIANSAND. drome and one enemy machine was . seeTtaSng off along the, runway as our aircraft aPProach f ed- > ,, £ , Vl exn losiv« A large number of W^-^w»v* to wnere a number of aircraft wen.Sanding, and the raid was succe* Sun attack Z the aerodrome hangar. S^^lX^S Sir S tacks Evasive action was success- _ fuUy taken by our pilots, and the only damage suffered by our aircraft was the loss of one trailing aerial.

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