MASS AERIAL RAIDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1944, Page 5

MASS AERIAL RAIDS

HANOVER AND KASSEL

SIXTEEN R.A.F. LOSSES

RUGBY, October 24. More than 400 Thunderbolts and Mustangs heavily strafed transportation and other targets in the Hanover and Kassel area of Germany to-day. One enemy aircraft was destroyed in the air and four on the ground. Enemy air opposition was weak. Anti-aircraft fire ranged from light in some areas to very dense in others. Eighteen fighters have not yet returned, but two pilots are known to be safe, and at least two are believed to have landed in friendly territory. Four hundred Thunderbolts and Mustangs of the Bth United States Air Force made sweeps throughout Tuesday between Hamburg and Kassel and shot up 150 locomotives and hit dozens of other ground targets, including nine flak towers, two steamers, one electric plant, two factories, and numerous barges. They also gunned enemy troops in a ravine. , R.A.F. Coastal Command Mosquitoes without loss on Tuesday shot down three enemy fighters off the Norwegian coast. Five squadrons of R.A.F. Typhoons devastated an important military target, Dordrecht, with rocket bombs. The target mainly was two large buildings in a park. AMERICAN RAIDS

i RUGBY, October 24. More than twelve hundred United States Flying Fortresses and Liberators on Wednesday attacked Germany’s largest railway yards at Hamm, oil refineries in the HamburgHarburg area, and other military targets in north-western Germany. Bombing was done through clouds by means of instruments. The bombers were escorted by more than five hundred Thunderbolts and Mustangs of the United States Eighth Air Force.

RHINELAND LIGHTS

LONDON, October 25

A mysterious lighting up of the Rhineland cities of Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Duisburg at night lias been reported by Allied airmen. The Associated Press says that a possible explanation is that rioting or other disturbances may have broken out in these cities. Pilots first saw the street lights fully turned on on the night of October 11. They have appeared intermittently since. “The Germans’ urgent need of supplies for front line troops is believed to be the reason for the lighting of the Rhineland cities,” says Reuter’s correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. “The groaning German transport system suffered a severe blow by the recent Royal Air Force blasting of the Dortmund-Ems canal, in addition to the Allied air forces’ continuous railway-cutting and locomotive busting. The enemy’s front line oosition evidently demands supplies so urgently that the threat oi night raids has had to be disregarded. Other theories are that urgent German military traffic to the front line cannot brook the congestion caused by the black-out, and that tne lights are also needed to clear the bomb-damaged cities so that the surviving war industries may >.lll'll out materials for Hitler's hard-pressed armies.” - FLYINGBOMBS

LONDON, October 25. Flying bombs launched against southern England last night caused slight damage, but no casualties are reported.