SECOND "BLITZ"

Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 3

SECOND "BLITZ"

CASSEL AGAIN PLASTERED

1,500 TONS QF BOMBS UI'GBY. October 23. Well over 1.000 tons of high explosives and incendiaries fell on Cassel last night. In two attacks this month the city, which is one of Genuanv's most important armaments and engineering centres, has felt the weight of 3.000 tons of bombs. Towards the end of last night's attack huge fires were burning and a great nail of smoke 18,0001't high hung over the city. Squadrons of the H.C.A.F. Member Group took part and dropped the heaviest load yet released by the group on a German target. Australian squadrons were also engaged, and all their crews agree that the bombing was most effective. There was thick cloiul over Germany, but about 40 miles from the target the weather suddenly improved, and. except for some thin haze, it was quite clear over Cassel. Pilots said that there was u great deal of llak. but it was only after the bombers had dropped their bombs and wero making their way out that fighters appeared. Strings of flares began going down, and enemy aircraft started laying a flare-path both on the way into the target and on the way out.

One Halifax rear gunner told of one of the largest explosions he had ever seen, and added that when he had flown about 40 miles he saw another explosion, which lit up the whole sky. Later arrivals said that the Germans rushed up a strong force of fighters. The bombaimer of a Lancaster said the bombers dived through flares to make sure of the targets, despite the danger from enemy fighters above waiting for the aircraft to be illuminated. One group shot down five enemy aircraft. From this and other operations over the Ruhr, as well as mine-laying, the R.A.F. lost 44 aircraft.

'lt is recalled tiiat Cassel suffered at the hands of the R.A.F. earlier this year. When the Eder dam was breached last May the flood waters invaded the city.

Evidence continues to accumulate of the effectiveness of Bomber Command's assault upon the industrial towns and cities of Germany. The.latest information reveals the destruction caused in four towns Frankfurt, Bochum, Cassel, and Hagen. The last attack on Frankfurt was on the night of October 4-5. Photographs taken since show that a direct hit was obtained on a sluice beside a very large lock on the river Main, which forms a link for river traffic between the Rhine and the Danube. A dam elsewhere in the harbour is known to have received a direct hit. The important East Harbour, with manv inland docks, was the most heavilv damaged part of Frankfurt. Thirty-seven factories, some of great importance, were damaged in this attaclk. WIDESPREAD, HAVOC.

Photographs of Cassel after the attack on the night of October 3-4 show that five of the town's first priority factories were damaged, three seriously. In all,.some 30 factories and industrial premises were destroyed or damaged; Hagen. about 12 miles south of Dortrnund" was attacked on the night of October 1-2.. Among the 39 factories or industrial premises damaged was the great Accumulateren Fabrik, the largest works of its kind in Germany, where accumulators and batteries for submarines and fire control instruments are produced. Bochum, one of the main steel producing centres of the Ruhr was attacked on the night of September 29-dO, and very heavy damage was caused to the vital steel plants, coal mines, and oil plant.