RAID ON CAEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1944, Page 8

RAID ON CAEN

ACCURATE AIMING

THANKS FROM ALLIED TROOPS

LONDON, July 7. . British heavy bombers made a mass raid on the Caen area of the Normandy front tonight. Well over 2000 tons of bombs were sent down on concentrations of German troops, tanks, defence posts, and strong-points just north of the town. The attack took place just before 10 o'clock, and was made by more than 450 Lancasters and Halifaxes of the Bomber Command which had been standing by all day. Spitfires gave them cover during the operations. Two aiming points were attacked' in succession,- with a quarter of an hour interval in between.

Air Chief 'Marshal Harris ordered his crews to go down as close as necessary to ensure accuracy, in view of the close proximity of our troops, and the succeeding crews were ordered to aim at the points from which smoke was coming if they could not see the markers laid down during the A correspondent describes how the bombers went in conveyor-belt fashion, turned sharply, and then headed for home, paying no heed to the antiaircraft fire in the early stages. When the second wave went over there was no effective ground opposition. Typhoons rocketed flak positions^ into complete silence. Canadian troops cheered as the bombers went in and out of the target area, and when the crews returned to the interrogation room the first thing they saw was a blackboard with a chalked notice in which the Second Army conveyed, its thanks to the bomber crews.

A dispatch reports that the battering of the defences of Caen was one of the heaviest bombings—probably the heaviest—since the landing. A correspondent says it was one of the most spectacular events of the Normandy campaign. Not a German plane was seen to challenge the Lancasters and their fighter escort, and the German defences around Caen must have been very heavily battered.