HEAVY ATTACKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 53, 30 August 1940, Page 7

HEAVY ATTACKS

Selected Points

BIG FIRES STARTED

Industrial Plant Hit

LONDON, August 29. In a raid on Berlin last night, the second this week, our aircraft had selected certain military objectives and works vital to Germany's war production. Competition among" the British pilots was so keen that one pilot remarked: "You could not have bought a seat in any of the planes for any amount of money." The planes set out for Berlin just after dusk and were away for about eleven hours. A power station was one of the targets. One of the pilots said that when he reached tho place someone else had already been there and the station was on fire. He sent down a stick of bombs and started four more fires, and then cruised around Berlin for half an hour. According to the German radio, the warning lasted from 24 minutes past midnight until 3.15 in the morning. The Germans, as usual, claim that the damage caused was insignificant and say that ten people were killed and 28 injured. The casualties were all among people who had failed to take cover in shelters. This is perhaps understandable after the description given by a neutral correspondent who was in one of the shelters in Sunday night's raid on Berlin. He said that there were no seats and the 100 people in the shelter had to stand all the time with their heads rubbing against the ceiling. There was little light or ventilation. Any person leaving a shelter during a raid was liable to a fine of 150 marks. At Dessau a concentrated attack was made on the large Junkers aircraft factory for half an hour, and over 15 tons of bombs, both high-explosive and incendiary, were dropped. Although the works were protected by batteries of anti-aircraft guns, none of the British planes -was hit. Other targets included a large vessel lying in a canal 25 miles west of Berlin. A salvo of bombs was dropped and some hit the ship, and blew it up.

(Official Wireless and U.P.A.) (Received August 30, noon.) LONDON, August 29. A special attack on one * objective only four miles from the centre of the city was selected by R.A.F. aircraft, which dropped a large number of bombs on a series of carefully chosen military objectives in Berlin last night. An Air Ministry communique states that last night bombers made extensive raids on military objectives in Germany and Holland and enemy-occupied France. Several important targets in the erlin area were heavily bombed, jther aircraft attacked the air-frame Victory at Leipzig, the Junkers works t Dessau, oil plants at Reisholz, Dortmnd, and Nordenham, north of Bremen, and several enemy aerocromes. A large vessel lying in a canal near Rathenow,. 25 miles west of Berlin, sustained a direct hit and exploded. All the British aircraft returned. Two made forced landings, but the are safe. A young pilot officer, describing the attack on the Berlin power station, -oid, "We bombed it dead on midnight. Somebody had been there before us, and when we arrived we found the target well on fire. We could see it when we were 25 minutes' flying time away from the target. We came in more or. less from north to south and put a stick of bombs down just to the icft of this big fire. Then four more fires started. They were burning with a very bright white light. Altogether we were cruising round over Berlin for about half an hour." LINE OF WHITE-HOT FIRE. Another pilot who attacked the same target reported a line about half a tfiile long of what appeared to be white-hot fire. Attacking another target, a captain and his crew reported that after they had made their attack they saw fires 50 miles away when on the return journey. Taking bearings from a sheet of water, one raider dropped a stick of heavy bombs on works near Texel See, one of Berlin's lakes. Owing to haze, he was unable to determine the success of this attack, but 20 minutes later another pilot saw a fire at these works. On the way out, a wing commander and his crew saw a German plane shot down by its own defences. The enemy jfrcraft was approaching a German- j occupied aerodrome with its navigation lights on. Two green lights, presumably a signal to land, flashed from 4he ground. Then searchlights caught the aircraft and gunfire started, and apparently hit the German plane, which dived vertically to the ground.

MORE VIOLENT THAN EARLIER RAID. The Stockholm newspaper "Aftonbladet" says that the R.A.F. raids on Berlin last night were more violent than the raid on August 25. Several waves of planes apparently operated. The anti-aircraft fire indicated that the British planes were distributed over the whole of Berlin. Red flames followed the detonation of one bomb. The worst fires were caused in east Berlin, where the Goerlitzer railway goods yard was set on fire. Fires also broke out in north Berlin, notably in the Greifswader Strasse. The authorities claim that the fires were mostly confined to roofs. For the first time since the outbreak of the war, Germany has admitted that British bombs were dropped on industrial plant. A German communique states: "British planes last night intentionally attacked Berlin's residential quarters and suburbs. High-explosive and incendiary bombs damaged several blocks of flats and killed or injured numerous civilians and damaged houses. One of the attackers was shot down by gunfire before reaching Berlin. The British also attacked .the Leuna works. The damage was slight. There was no damage worth mentioning elsewhere in central and western Germany. The losses for the day were 44 British and 15 German planes." The German news agency declares that 10 persons were killed and 28 wounded as a result of last night's raid on Berlin. All the victims were civilians living in workers' homes in south-eastern Berlin. The damage done was insignificant, and no military objectives were hit. A dozen high-explosive bombs are estimated to! have been dropped, also a large number of incendiary bombs, which caused roof fires. The greatest destruction occurred in Knottbusser Street, where

five persons were killed and fronts of buildings smashed. A Berlin message states that the all-clear signal was sounded at 3.18 a.m. JOURNALISTS' TOUR OF BERLIN. The Berlin correspondent of the British United Press states: "Firemen this morning are still clearing away the debris resulting from the R.A.F. raid. Every window within a radius of a quarter of a mile was smashed in one quarter of the city. * One bomb is believed to have killed six persons standing in a doorway. It was the -first time bombs had fallen in Berlin proper. "The Ministry of Propaganda hastily organised a tour of the city for neutral correspondents, who were shown a spot where six people were killed and 16 injured. The correspondents were not taken to the northern and north-western areas." The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press of America says that the newspapermen saw no damage at the Templehof aerodrome, the Klingenberg railway, the Siemens works, or railway stations. It was impossible to visit all points of military interest in the two-hour rapid drive around Berlin, but no damage was seen except to pavements and dwellings.