RAIDS ON GERMANY

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 November 1940, Page 7

RAIDS ON GERMANY

LARGE OIL-WORKS BOMBED

HEAVY DAMAGE INFLICTED

[BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.}

RUGBY, November 18.

An Air Ministry communique states: The main force of our bombers’ attack last night, was on the oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen. Other aircraft bombed industrial targets in the Ruhr, rail and river communications in western Germany, the naval base of Lorient in Britanny, and aerodromes in occupied territory. All our planes returned.

The R.A.F. began the attacks on the main targets of last night’s raids at an exceptionally early hour, says the Air . Ministry News Service. The main objectives were concentrated blows on the Scholven synthetic oil plant at Buer, in the neighbourhood of Gelsenkirchen. This is one of Germany’s most important plants for the manufacture of synthetic aviation petrol from coal, designed to produce 300,00 metric tons annually. The first British aircraft arrived before seven o’clock. Cloud made it difficult to find and observe the factory buildings, but these first squadrons remained nearly an hour, during which they found an opportunity to place many high explosives and nearly a thousand incendiaries on the target. All but one of the pilots reported fire, and saw a magnificent conflagration, which quickly spread till it covered an area of half a square mile. It was still burning fiercely 15 minutes after the attack.

After about an hour’s interval, more bombers arrived over the same plant. They found the weather far from perfect. There was a certain amount of ground haze. Anti-air-craft fire was well aimed, but not particularly intense. There was a great concentration of searchlights. The second raid lasted nearly two hours. Many fires and explosions were seen. Direct hits were noticed on various large buildings. Another synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen, only second in imoortance to the Scholven refinery, was raided at intervals from soon after dusk till fairly late at night. Here there were thick ground haze and cloud during certain periods, though at other times the weather, apart from the haze, was quite favourable. Six fires resulted from this attack, and explosions were caused by fires. Yet another oil refinery was attacked towards midnight. Though there was cloud, this was not enough to prevent observation. Bursts from one aircraft were seen to cause two major explosions, five minutes after" the bombs ‘had fallen. About 500 incendiaries were dropped. Many subsequent fires were seen.The railway junction nqrth-east of Gelsenkirchen was hit with heavy high explosives, and at another railway station, among the Gelsenkirchen collieries—for Gelsenkirchen is the chief seam of coal of the mining centre in the Ruhr basin, as well as the locality of many oil refineries—incendiaries -started a. long fire and a smaller fire which was seen to spread rapidly. Railway yards, near the main railway station at Gelsenkirchen, were raided. Bombs were seen to straddle the western end of the yards. The aerodrome at Buer, near Gelsenkirchen, was attacked. Incendiaries started a fire, but the ground haze made observation of the full results impossible. Other aircraft were operating island wide over western Germany. Five large fires w*ere started among the wharves at Duisberg Ruhrort, an inland port on the Rhine, and in spite of thick haze, the R.A.F. pressed home the attack. Many fires broke out, followed by formidable explosions. x T Fires and explosions at Hamm were observed through a gap in the clouds. An aerodrome north of Dusseldorf was also heavily bombed, three fires merging into one large blaze. A number of. other industrial targets were attacked. Bombs were also dropped in the dock areas of Den Hielder and Lorient, starting fires.

GERMAN VERSION (Recd. November 19, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, November 18. A German communique refers to the air attack on London military objectives in the south of England, and armament targets in Midlands. It says that the British bombed several points in western Germany. Fires in an ironworks and a tile-yard were quickly extinguished. Two houses were bombed. A small numbei of people were injured. BLOCKADE NEEDS LONDON, November 18. Aviation experts read into the blockade that Germany is trying to establish, west of the Irish coast, an aerial threat to Britain’s increasinglyimportant sea communications with America, from whom Britain is beginning to draw enormous war supplies. Operating from bases on the French Atlantic coast, the Germans hope to nullify much of this American help by the energetic use of big bombers and a new type of longrange flying-boat. British aviation authorities contend what Britain needs is a great number of long-range fighter planes to serve the dual purpose of escorting daylight bombing attacks on Germany, ana for the interception, off Ireland, of German bombers. The type of aircraft urgently needed are fighters with a top speed of 40 0 miles an hour, and a crusing range of at least 2,000 miles. They must be heavily armed with cannon and machine-guns. COMPARATIVE LOSSES LONDON, November 18. Losses of aeroplanes since the war began to November 15, based on Air Ministry and Greek communiques are: British 1648: German 5058; Italian 299; and Greek 7.