DUSSELDORF BOMBED

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 November 1944, Page 5

DUSSELDORF BOMBED

LARGE FIRES STARTED

MANY ENEMY FIGHTERS USED

LONDON, November 2. Well over 4000 tons of bombs were dropped on Dusseldorf last night in the heaviest attack ever made on the city, which is now the Germans’ most important advanced base and industrial centre in the Ruhr. More than a thousand Royal Air Force heavy bombers took part in the attack on Dusseldorf. The first wave of bombers, Halifaxes, went in unusually early, soon after 7. o’clock, before the moon was high enough to give them away. These aircraft'Started big fires which aided later flights of Lancasters. Dusseldorf’s arms factories were heavily bombed last April, and had been extensively repaired. A correspondent points out that it is an extremely hard job to wipe out arms plants on the outskirts of the city and to achieve the devastation that was caused at Essen. However, the Royal Air Force has new weapons against such targets. Mosquitoes attacked targets at Osnabrueck. 20 BOMBERS MISSING RUGBY, Nov. 3. Everything was so clear during last night’s attack on Dusseldorf that the crews could see the markers when still fifty miles from the target. The enemy’s heavy guns went into action while fighters joined in the battle m greater numbers than during the offensive against Cologne. Many enemy fighters including numbers o I jet-propelled were seen. An Air Mm istry communique says that after the attack very large fires were left burning. Nine enemy fighters, including five jet-propelled aircraft, were destroyed by bombers. Nightfighters supported the bombers and attacked an enemy airfield. Mosquitoes on intruder patrol attacked transport targets and destroyed an enemy aircraft over north-west Germany. From these aircraft twenty bombers are missing. . American fighter losses m Thursday’s air battle over Leuna are now eiven officially as nineteen at most. Nine of twenty-eight Thunderbolts and Mustangs reported missing last night landed on friendly territory on the Continent, and still others* probably landed behind the Allied lines.. It is estimated that five hundred aircraft rose to oppose the attacking forces. Forty bombers are now missing. .