CHEAT BOMB CORDON

Evening Star, Issue 25171, 10 May 1944, Page 3

CHEAT BOMB CORDON

lOBTH-WESTERN EUROPE mm off

UNMERCIFUL HAMMERING FROM ALLIES

([Rec. 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, May 9. The cloudless'V blue sky over the Straits of Dover to-day throbbed and vibrated with the roar of hundreds of Allied planes engaged in the increas-ingly-intensified- blitz against the Continent. Front-line English towns this morning were rocked by a series of explosions from across the Channel, though whether from our blockbusters or from German blasting operations is not known. The concussion shook coastal houses for 15 minutes. The British United Press aviation correspondent says that a " great bomb cordon " is being established about North-western Europe by thousands of Allied planes which are now shuttling forth day and night in the biggest continuous air offensive of the war. A ring of targets stretching from Liege in the east to Brest in the west has been hammered unmercifully in the past 24 hours by Lancasters. Halifaxes. Liberators, Fortresses. Mitchells, Bostons, Marauders, aud Havocs, as well as by a host of fighter-bombers.

The steady rain of high explosives has poured down almost without ceasing on vita! German communication points, airfields, and ammunition dumps. No area of this size in the world has ever been subjected to such an intense air bombardment.

The correspondent estimates that over 4.000 bombers and fighters in the past 24 hours participated in the attacks against German communications and airfields in North-western Europe. Between them they dropped nearly 5,000 tons of bombs. Possibly the conditions for bomibing were better in this 24 hours than ever before, which means that no bombs have paid better dividends. Our bombers last night could see in the brilliant moonlight the hangars at Brest airfields so plainly that they did not need flares.

It is officially announced that very strong forces of American Eighth Air Force heavy bombers to-day attacked railway marshalling yards handling German war freight, also aerodromes in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Ninth Air Force Marauders and Havocs this morning bombed military objectives and railway yards in Northern France and Belgium. R.A.F., dominion, and Allied Spitfire and Ninth Air Force Thunderbolts provided the escort. The Air Ministry news service reports that Lancasters and Halifaxes which carried out last night's raids found most enemy fighters concentrated around the railyards at Haine-St. Pierre, between itfons and Charleroi. (The raiders met heavy flak at an airfield near Brest. The crews reported fires and explosions at the targets.