AERIAL OFFENSIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1942, Page 5

AERIAL OFFENSIVE

Mainz again bombed MANY FIRES RAGING LONDON, August 13. The German city of Mainz, a railway centre and inland port at the junction of the Rhine and Main Rivers, was bombed again by a strong force of Royal Air Force bombers last night. Airfields in the. Low Countries were also attacked. Five British aircraft are missing. In the previous night’s raid a strongforce dropped hundreds of tons of bombs,. on,, Mainz, . including more than 50,000 incendiaries. Mainz has railway waggon works and chemical factories,.-.and .handles a considerable grain traffic. . In the target area there are — or were —64 warehouses. Special brews circled the city during Tuesday’s raid for the purpose of reporting the progress of operations. A member of one of these crews, a squadron leader, described how within four minutes of the opening of the attack three large fires were raging. At the end of the attack there were more fires than the airmen were able to count. British airmen to-day flew over to see what Mainz looked like in daylight. Dense black clouds of smoke were still rising to a height of 15,000 feet. . Fires started at Mainz m Tuesday night's raids were too much for the town’s firefighters, according to the Air Ministry News Service. When the attack was renewed last night, the planes which arrived first had flown through thick cloud, and clouds lay over Mainz itself. Crew after crew had to descend below the cloud base to pick out landmarks, and pinpoint their objectives. The attack was concentrated and was over in about an hour. One pilot reported the results were better even than those on Tuesday. RAIDS ON BRITAIN. LONDON, August 13. London had a short alert last night, for the third night running. Raiders were also over the East Anglian coast, and south-east Scotland. Bombs were dropped at a lew scattered points. Two enemy aeroplanes bombed a place on the south-west coast oi England and killed five persons. A number of houses were damaged. A farmer and his four sons toiled a German attempt yesterday morning to set their wheat crop on fire. They cut trenches through the wheat and flung soil on the incendiaries. Most of the crop was saved. An agency message reports that a few night raiders over East Anglia bombed scattered points, including the greater London area. Seven were killed and three injured. A . single night raider bombed two points on the south-eastern coast of Scotland. A German fighter-bomber raided a south coastal town by daylight, injuring three persons. The Luftwaffe heavily bombed port installations and a town on the Firth of Forth, also an aerodrome south of there, and aircraft factories in a town in the West Midlands. Big guns on both _ sides of _ the Channel were in action last night, contributing one of the noisiest nights the Straits of Dover have experienced. The Germans apparently were using more guns than usual as they fired some six-inch salvos. U.S.A. PLANES ENGAGED RUGBY, August 13. The United States Army Headquarters of the European theatre of operations, states: In the 48 hours to 9 a.m. on August 13, the United States fighter squadrons, flying in conjunction with R.A.F. fighters, made three operational flights over the coast of France. United States fighters also took part in 20 sea sorties, and eight interception sorties off the coast of England.

N.Z. FITTER’S TRIBUTE.

(N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

(Recd. 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, August 13. One of the few, if not the only New Zealand armoured fitter, posted to the American fighter squadron, is Corporal Clifford Crawford of Gore. He spent 18 months in England with Spitfire squadrons until last month when he was sent to an American squadron on a station which the New Zealand Spitfire squadron recently left. Crawford . instructs Americans on servicing Spitfires.. “They are grand chaps, and pick up things quickly. I have to give lectures and demonstrations. They are keen for new ideas. _I have never seen better tool kits than theirs. They work flat out when on the job. They want me to remain with them. I hope I will be allowed to.”