RAIDS ON ENGLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 May 1944, Page 5

RAIDS ON ENGLAND

PORTSMOUTH INCLUDED ? SIX ENEMY LOSSES « LONDON, May 16. Bombs were dropped on some towns in the south-east coastal area of Britain last night. There were some casualties. Six of the raiders were shot down. The German News Agency reports: Strong formations of German heavy bombers for twenty-five minutes on •Monday night attacked a most important target in Portsmouth harbour. Great quantities of explosives and incendiaries were dropped. The Press Association’s aviation correspondent says: There was a noticeable enemy attempt at concentrated bombing over one coastal area. Other planes, however, dispersed over a much' wider area. This suggests what the Germans describe as a pre-invasion probe. Bombs were dropped on five south coast towns. Ot one of these a number were killed. A hospital was damaged. LUDWIGSHAVEN BOMBED. LONDON, May 16. Royal Air Force Mosquitoes last night attacked Ludwigshaven. They dropped many 4000 pounders, and pilots said they saw the bombs going into the target area. Royal Air Force bombers also raided targets in Northwest Germany and an airfield in France. .Four aircraft are missing. Allied bombers continued their attacks on Hitler’s western wall yesterday. Not a single enemy fighter was met during the day’s operations, and all the Allied machines returned. All the targets bombed were in France. Heavy bombers attacked military installations in the Pas de Calais area, and medium bombers attacked railway yards in Northern France and an airfield near Paris. Fighter bombers hit other targets in Northern France. Various types of fighters went with the bombers. One Mustang is missing from escort work. NEAR SPANISH FRONTIER. "RUGBY, May 16. Mosquito crews who bombed Ludwigshafen last night reported a large explosion after fires sprang up in the target area. The attack started shortly after midnight. Although many searchlights were switched on when the aircraft arrived, they were ineffective because of haze and cloud over the town. Shifting the attack on the airfields to southern France, a small force of Mustangs late yesterday machinegunned an enemy airfield at Agen, on the Garonne River, less than 100 miles from the Spanish frontier, destroying two grounded planes. From this operation no aircraft is missing. The Mustangs penetrated more than 450 miles and were unmolested.

Yesterday afternoon a Junkers 52 transport was shot down and another, damaged when a Coastal Command Beaufighter pilot sighted six enemy aircraft. He decided to fly through the formation and break it up. Early yesterday morning an Avenger aircraft wfith the Coastal Command bombed enemy shipping off the French coast. One smalt merchant vessel was hit.