HEART OF THE RUHR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 151, 28 June 1943, Page 5

HEART OF THE RUHR

FOURTH RAID IN FIVE NIGHTS RUGBY, June 26. The R.A.F. finished a week's continuous night bombing with the fourth attack in the Ruhr area in five nights. The objective was the Bochum-Gelsen-kirchen district, which lies in the heart of the Ruhr. The defences of Essen, Duisburg, Krefeld, Mulheim, and Oberhausen, towns which ( had been heavily bombed in recent attacks, went into action. .■■ An intense barrage came up to meet the R.A.F., but the huge searchlight belt- of. the Ruhr was handicapped because of cloud, and different tactics from those used in recent raids had to be employed. Instead of trying to cone the bombers, the enemy directed their searchlights to the base of the. cloud' so that the bombers would be clearly silhouetted and picked up by German fighters. There were running fights all along the route from the Belgian coast through the Ruhr and back again. In spite of the cloud, the night never became very dark, but enemy fighters were no more successful in stopping the bombers than on the previous night, and the clouds over the target were soon glowing from fires. . Eochum and Gelsenkirchen have each a population of about 300,000, and many coal mine's. Bochum is the centre of the most prolific part of the Ruhr coal basin, and-Gelsenkirchen is the chief steam coal-mining centre. Both have many important factories. There is a big steel industry at Bochum, and Gelsenkirchen also produces steel and.has two of the largest synthetic oil plants in the Reich. Some of the most important railway communications pass through the district.— 8.0. W.