FIRES MILE SQUARE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20526, 9 April 1941, Page 8

FIRES MILE SQUARE

DOCKS AND TOWN DEVASTATING RAIDS 30,030 FIRE-BOMBS FALL BIGGEST LOAD YET iKU'i'.. TVI. UnilfMl Press Assn.) (British Ofiicial Wireless.j Rood. 2 p.rn. RUGBY. April ; Several hundred bombers were engaged on each side in the raids last night bv the Rcval Air Force and Ur. Luftwaffe. The weather over Germany was undcubtediy exceptionally good, but the fact remains on this occasion, as ihc Germans themselves admitted, thei; cli’ort was widely dispersed by tin. British defences, whereas almost tinwhole of the Royal Air Force bomber force engaged on the operations .successfully attacked their primary targets. In the attack on Kiel, aircraft of the bomber command carried- the heavies, load of bombs ever dropped in Germany in a single night. One pilot said: “The only way to have put out the fives would have been to push the whole, place into the sea." Hundreds of tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs by that time had done their work. Smoke was drifting not only over the whole town but out to sea. Docks and shipbuilding yards were completely outlined in red. One mile square in the centre of the town was a single sheet of lire and every moment explosions shook the level wastes.of flame.

Perfect for Bombing In several areas attacked, as many of our crews discovered, it was not easy to find among the fires a vacant black spot on which to drop a homo. It was a bright moonlight night and. with the weather perfect for bombing, only the smoke of the fires occasion ally obstructed the view from the bomb-sights, but this hindered the defences as well, for several crews noticed the searchlights were ineffective when dimmed by layers of smoke through which they had to pass. A strong wind fanned the flames, and by the end of the raid it was considered that no fire brigade could hop: to control all the fires, and many must have been left to burn themselves out. Curtain of Fire For five hours British bombers went in over Kiel in wave after wave. Throughout the first hours of the raid they had to pierce a curtain of antiaircraft fire from one of the most heavily defended areas of Germany.

but in the end the very weight arc resolution of the attack seemed to bear down the defences and there were significant lulls in the gunfire.

The first wave of bombers soon IN the way for successors and Kiel shortly shone like a beacon out to it: as far as Heligoland. As the next waves approached the crews watchcc. tiie glare split up into a multitude oi fires and were able to observe yet more detailed signs of destruction. Glowing shells of warehouses lined the waterfront. Huge building.-, wholly enveloped in flames stood out amidst the general conflagration. The submarine building yards evidently suffered greatly. A huge building in the Deutchwerke shipyards was seen to collapse and in Die town itself The ruin was almost as widespread as in the docks.