HOME OF KRUPPS

Evening Star, Issue 24447, 8 March 1943, Page 3

HOME OF KRUPPS

FORTY MINUTES' CONCENTRATED ATTACK (British Official Wirelesi.) RUGBY, March 6. Over 150 bombs of 4,0001 b calibre, as well as a heavy tonnage of other high explosives and thousands of incendiaries, were dropped on Essen, the home of Krupps armament works; within 10 minutes in a heavy concentrated attack last night, which cost the R.A.F. 14 bombers. Halfway through'the raid there was a violent explosion, which left a.huge orange cloud hanging in the sky for some minutes. Dense clouds of smoke rose to a height estimated at 15,000 ft. The returning airmen could still see the fires from the Dutch coast. The raid is described iu the ' Sunday Express ' as the heaviest and most devastating in history. It is estimated! that three tons of high explosives and incendiaries crashed down every four socoiuls, which is a weigh of attack no town has previously suffered. What it meant in casualties cau be measured from the fact that the Germans now admit that the latest raid 1 on Berlin, when the weight of bombs was less than that dropped on Essen, caused 436 deaths and 377 seriously injured. A reporter who visited a Lancaster bomber base declares that veteran air crews agree that the raid was the greatest ever undertaken. The station commander said: " I have never 6een crews come back looking so cheerful." The commander of the Lancaster squadron said the losses were incredibly small for the results achieved. » A Stockholm message says it is reported from Berlin that the Air Ministry building was seriously damaged during the R.A.F.'s raid on Mom'ay last.

HEAVY R.A.F. RAID ,