ENEMY SURPRISED

Evening Star, Issue 23864, 19 April 1941, Page 9

ENEMY SURPRISED

DAYLIGHT VISIT TO CHERBOURG ACCURATE BOMBING OF DOCKS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. (Received April 19, at 10.20 a.m.) An Air Ministry communique states: Blenheim bombers, strongly escorted by several squadrons of fighters, carried out a day attack on Cherbourg yesterday. The enemy was taken by surprise, and no enemy fighters were engaged. The weather over the target was clear, and enabled very accurate bombing of the docks to be carried out. None of these aircraft is missing. During the day the widespread search for enemy shipping continued. Several merchant vessels were attacked, and one was damaged and probably sunk. Another was blown up in the harbour. A number of very powerful bombs were dropped on targets in the centre of Berlin last night during the heaviest attack yet made on the enemy’s capital. Fires immediately broke out, and the attack was pressed home. Many bursts were seen across the targets and substantial damage was certainly done. Bombs were also dropped on targets in Holland, including Rotterdam, and on Cologne and a number of places in North-west Germany. Eight of our aircraft are missing.

CAPITAL CHEQUERED WITH FIRES (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. (Received April 19, at 1 p.m.) According to the Air Minstry news service more 11.A.F. bombers, carrying more bombs than ever before, were sent to Berlin last night, and when one of the last aircraft of the Bomber Command turned for home the city was chequered with fires, for the most part in the heart of the capital. It was not easy to see from above what each bomb among the hundreds of high explosives (some of them exceptionally powerful) had done, but the bombs were dropped by the light of the (lames caused, while all the defences of the capital were working at full strength. Both more high explosives and more incendiaries were dropped than in the last R.A.F. raid on Berlin. Two enemy fighters were put out of action by R.A.F. bombers, one on its way to Berlin and the other on its way home.

GOVERNMENT'S REGULAR POLICY INCREASING SCALE OF RAIDS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. (Received April 19, at 1 p.m.) It would be a 'mistake to describe the bombing of Berlin last night as a reprisal for the raid on Loudon the night before. It was not a reprisal but part of the regular policy adopted by the R.A.F. under instructions from His Majesty’s Government of bombing objectives in the two guilty countries which are most likely to weaken their military or industrial capacity. This policy will bo continued to the end of the war, and, it is hoped, on an everincreasing scale, irrespective of whethci any further attacks arc made on the British Isles or not.

RAF. IH MALAYA STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE SINGAPORE. April 18. (Received April 19, at 11.10 a.in.) It is officially revealed that a large number of the latest American Brewster Bull’alo fighters have arrived at Singapore, and are already in service with the R.A.F. in Malaya. Correspondents to-day at one aerodrome saw dozens of Buffaloes on the assembly line. As fast as they are completed and tested they are despatched to Malayan fighter squadrons. These, with the other British and American machines already in Malaya, make the air defences of Malaya infinitely more powerful, than over before.