SCIENTIFIC ATTACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1943, Page 5

SCIENTIFIC ATTACK

A PERFECT EXAMPLE

LONDON, July 20,

"The first Fortresses over Rome found their mark—Jhe giant marshalling yards which are the nerve centre of the enemy's railway communication system in Italy," writes Reuters correspondent, Haig Nicholson, who was in a Flying Fortress over Rome. The great religious centres of St. Peters, St. John the Lateran, and the Basilica of San Paolo were untouched The nearest religious, building of note to the Lorenzo marshalling yards is the St. John Lateran, about half a mile away. The raid was a perfect example of scientific bombing. Scientists are now poring over photographs to bear out the visual observation that no damage was done to religious institutions. A British United Press correspondent, Richard MacMillan, who accompanied the raid, said it was the heaviest ever launched on Italy. Several thousand United States airmen took part. Great fires began spreading in the marshalling yards after the first bombs fell. The weather was perfect, and for almost 25 minutes, while the planes were over Italian soil, the capital was shaken to its foundations. "We were over Rome at 11.32 a.m., and dropped 500-pounders into the marshalling yards;* he said,. "We could see ahead of us and behind us planes dropping loads into the maelstrom below. No aircraft flew over the Vatican during the whole of the raid. Part of the yards we were to ; bomb were pretty well covered with 'smoke and dust, but we could tell where they lay because of the sur- ! rounding unobscured targets. A member of the crew, as we turned from

the target, said: 'I saw what the Germans did to Louvain, and I went through the bombing of London. This sort of evens things up.'"

PLANNER OF THE RAID

It is disclosed in Algiers that the raid on. Rome was planned by Air Marshel Tedder, who visited most of the squadrons before they took off. Rome radio claimed that the only military objective hit by the raiders was the Rome railway station. Reuters Algiers correspondent says that the Allied targets included the Savoia Marchetti aircraft factory, the San Lorenzo freight depot and car shops, the Tiburtina railway yards, the central railway station and sheds, and the Ostiense station and nearby warehouses. Other targets were buildings of the Ministry of War and other nearby Government offices, a chemical plant alongside the Tiber, a steel mill, tramway garages and repair sheds, car shops, and railway sidings. A Berne message says that one of the first bombs dropped is reported to have landed near the Villa Tprlonia, Mussolini's residence. The villa was not damaged. After the raid Allied bombers dropped leaflets calling on the Italian people to lay down their arms and cast out the Fascist leadership. An American, Lieutenant Frank Senwick, who was the bombardier in the first Liberator to reach its home base after the raid, said that his section of the great bomber formation did not encounter a single enemy fighter. He added: "The anti-aircraft fire was extremely heavy. I saw my bombs fall in the max-shalling yards, and the earth seemed to vomit flames, smoke, and dust." Reuters commentator says that Rome radio indirectly admitted the accuracy of the bombing. All buildings included in its list of places hit lie close to a railway terminus, goods station, large barracks, or military parade ground.

AXIS PROPAGANDA

The Axis is making the most of raid propaganda. Rome radio said that the Allies bombed the famous Church of San .Lorenzo, University City, and also the residential districts of Campo Verano, San Lorenzo, Prenestino, and Tiburtino. The radio added that the San Lorenzo Church, containing the tombs of many Popes, was destroyed. The Italian news agency says that only the side walls of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and two columns of the porch are left standing. The Pope learned with acute grief that San Lorenzo had been hit by several bombs, says Rome radio. Accompanied by the Under-Secretary of State, the Pope drove to the Basilica, .where he inspected the damage. Returning to the Vatican, his Holiness insisted on driving through residential quarters where the bombs had caused the main damage. According to Paris radio, the Vatican Under-Secretary of State received the American Charge d'Affaires, to whom he expressed the indignation which was felt by the Vatican concerning the raid. Thousands of persons in Rome are reported to be trying to evacuate to the country or to move to the Trastevere district, which is nearest to the Vatican, says the Berne correspondent of the British United Press. The wish to- cluster round the Vatican is prompted by the Italians' certainty that the Allies' promise not to touch the Vatican will be kept.

A "Daily Express" correspondent on the Axis frontier says that the unexpected raid caused scenes of panic in Rome. Many refugees from the bombed areas in Sicily had recently arrived in Rome, and when the alarm was sounded frantic crowds almost immediately blocked shelters. Many of the police, it is reported, disappeared from the streets, leaving the crowds struggling uncontrolled.