GREAT DAM HIT

Evening Star, Issue 25301, 9 October 1944, Page 5

GREAT DAM HIT

BLOW TO GERMANS IN BELFORT GAP LONDON, Oct. 8. R.A.F. Lancasters, carrying 12,0001 b bombs, directly hit the great Kembs dam on the Rhone-Rhine canal, in Upper Alsace, eight miles from the Swiss frontier and nine miles south-east of Mulhouse. The bombers made several attacks, and hit the dam with one of their last bombs. By 7 p.m. yesterday the water level in the Rhine harbours of Klein and Hueningen dropped by over three feet.. Reut-er's points out that the emptying of the Kembs dam, which actuates the power stations of the district, is likely to affect the Germans defending the Belfort Gap: The bombs destroyed the main west sluice gates, and water was pouring through the breach when a Mosquito made a reconnaissance flight to the target later, tf the R.A.F. can succeed in blowing up the dam the Rhine at this point would be impassable for the Germans, who would bo left on the wrong side of the river. Another reconnaissance of the Dort-mund-Ems canal, which was drained bv Bomber Command in an attack on September 23, shows that the damage is considerably more than at first thought. The whole 18 miles stretch from the new aqueduct .east of Munster to the junction with the Ems canal is empty, and at least 110 barges are stranded on the canal bed.