EARLIER OPERATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 49, 26 August 1940, Page 7

EARLIER OPERATIONS

WIDELY DISTRIBUTED ATTACKS

MILITARY BASES SINGLED OUT (British OfflciaJ Wireless.) RUGBY, August 24. Aerodromes in the occupied terrijtories in France, from which German fighter and bomber squadrons are operating against Britain, were the chief objectives in last night's raids by aircraft of the R.A.F. Bomber Command. Attacks distributed over a wide area [were carried out by both heavy and medium bombers. A large military air base on the outskirts of Paris was raided in the early hours of the morning. Bombs dropped in a low-level attack were seen to burst across the aerodrome. Parachute flares which were released illuminated the target and set fire to a wodd on the east side of the landing ground. j i Raiders operating nearly 250 miles I away over South Brittany bombed ! aerodromes at Vannes, Saint Brieuc, jßennes, Dinard, Lanveoc, Poulmic, Guipavas, and an important air base in north Brest.

In Normandy great fires, visible for many miles, were started on the aero-i dromes of Lisieux and Caen. In northern France the two aerodromes of St. Omer and Merville, which formerly served as bases for R.A.F. fighter units in France, were attacked, and a fire started on the edge of the St. Omer landing ground was followed a few minutes later by two heavy explosions. Another raider, penetrating 70 miles south of Paris, bombed the aerodrome of Orleans, where one salvo burst within 50 yards of the main hangars. Glisy, the main airport of Amiens, and Beauvais aerodrome, well known to travellers on the London-Paris route, were also attacked in the early hours of the morning. GUN POSITIONS ATTACKED. Gun emplacements at Haringzelles on the French coast near Cape Gris Nez, were attacked for the second night in succession by a force of medium bombers which repeatedly bombed gun positions from heights ranging from 10,000 to 4000 feet.

Another French target successfully raided during the night was the harbour works at Dieppe, where, after the wharf had been hit, a series of vivid white explosions broke out, followed by large fires and flashes, which could be seen 40 miles out to sea.

British heavy bomber forces also paid the customary nightly visit to Germany, their objectives on this occasion being the important benzine refinery and storage plant at Sterkrade, in the, Ruhr, and the big railway yard at Mannheim.

At Sterkrade lines of high explosive bombs were seen to straddle the target, and direct hits are believed to have been scored on a pumping station and a fire started with incendiary bombs. A section of the ground defences, which became troublesome to raiders, was effectively dealt with by a salvo of bombs, which silenced the gun batteries and put the searchlights out of action. HOURS OF BOMBARDMENT. The railway sidings at Mannheim were subjected to hours of heavy bombardment, during which the target was repeatedly straddled. Fires which started as the result of explosions in the centre of the shunting yard were seen to be still burning a quarter of an hour after the last aircraft left the scene. Eindhoven aerodrome, in Holland, was attacked shortly after midnight by a medium bomber, whose pilot, coming down to within 2000 feet of the ground, saw a bomb strike buildings on the aerodrome and extinguish the lighted flare path. An Air Ministry communique states that daylight operations carried out by R.A.F. bombers during Friday included harassing attacks on aerodromes and other objectives in north-west France, the Low Countries, and Germany. At night an oil refinery in the Ruhr and supply depots in the Rhineland were bombed. Some 20 aerodromes and seaplane bases occupied by the enemy in Holland and France, and other targets in Boulogne, Dieppe, and Brest, were also attacked. Three bombers have not returned. i