VITAL TARGET

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21227, 16 October 1943, Page 4

VITAL TARGET

BAVARIAN PLANT SIXTY BOMBERS LOST 104 NAZI PLANES DOWN (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Oct. 14. American Flying Fortresses based in Britain to-day attacked a vital target—the ball and roller bearing factory at Schweinfurt in Bavaria, 55 miles east of Frankfurt, which was previously attacked in August. In to-day’s raid, which was pressed home against the fiercest opposition, the Fortresses destroyed 91 enemy fighters and the escorting Thunderbolts destroyed another 13 making a total of 104. Sixty American bombers and two fighters are missing. When Schweinfurt was attacked two months ago the opposition was also very fierce and 39 bombers were lost. On that occasion Regensburg was also attacked on the same clay ancl the total loss of 59 American bombers was then the highest loss from one clay’s attacks in Germany. Havoc in Hanover Scarcely a building remains undamaged' in the important central area of Hanover, between the main railway station and Machsse Lake, a mile to the south-west, which the Germans hacl rooted over ancl camouflaged. This is revealed by air photographs following the Bomber Command’s succesl'ui attack on the night of October 8. For three days after the attack the buildings were still burning and palls of smoke hung heavily over large areas of the city. B'ire has taken a heavy toll of important industrial areas and the business and administrative centre of the city is marked by an area over a mile and a-half square of almost complete devastation.