KASSEL BLASTED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21384, 20 April 1944, Page 3

KASSEL BLASTED

U.S. DAY_ RAIDERS PLANE PLANTS RAZED AIRFIELDS HARD HIT (10 a.m.) LONDON, April 19. United States Eighth Air, Force Liberators and Flying Fortresses raided Germany in very great strength to-day for the second time within 24 hours, states an official announcement. The bombers attacked the Luftwaffe fighter factories at Kassel and enemy aircraft parks at Ateschwege, south-east of Kassel ,and also Paderborn, Guthersloh and Lippstadt, all east of Hamm. Very strong forces of the Eighth and Ninth Air Force’s Thunderbolt, Lightning and Mustang fighters escorted the heavy bombers. Fighter pilots who escorted the United States bombers reported that they shot down 16 enemy fighters. The bombers’ gunners reported shooting down five enemy fighters. From this large-scale operation five bombers and two fighters failed to return.

A supplementary communique states: “Late this afternoon Liberators, with Thunderbolt fighter escorts from the Eighth Air Force, bombed military objectives in the Pas de Calais area, while other Thunderbolts conducted offensive patrols over Holland. No enemy fighters were seen, but “flak” was intense. One bomber was lost. American heavy bombers yesterday afternoon attacked objectives deep in Germany, including the aircraft factories at Oranienburg and Rathenau. The total force of United States aircraft engaged was probably in the neighbourhood of 2000. Photographs made during the American attacks on Germany yesterday show bomb hits on the enemy aircraft plant at Oranienburg and Rathenau in the Berlin area, on a rayon plant at Wittenburg, 75 miles north-west of Berlin, an airfield at Luneburg, 25 miles south-east of Hamburg, Perleberg, near Wittenburg; and dockside warehouses at Cuxhaven, on the North Sea, at the mouth of the River Elbe. Two patterns of bombs fell across the Heinkel 177 components’ plant at Oranienburg, hitting four major buildings and numerous smaller ones. Planes Wrecked on Ground On adjacent airfields a subassembly or repair building and a gun-testing range were hit and ' left burning. Of the 39 aircraft on the field, at least eight Heinkel 177 longrange bombers were destroyed or damaged. At Rathenau, 40 miles west of Berlin, an aircraft component plant was hit by a heavy concentration of explosive and incendiary bombs. Two of the three major buildings received direct hits. Fires were started in the barracks area and the area was obscured by smoke rising to several thousand feet at the end of the attack. Large fires were also started in the Wittenburg rayon plant area and the adjacent dockside. At Cuxhaven, a pattern of bombs was strung across warehouses along the docks and a number of bombs fell in the nearby marshalling yards. Good concentrations hit the hangar areas on Luneberg and Perleberg airfields and at Luneberg three aircraft were destroyed or damaged on the ground. Of the very strong fighter escort flown by the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces 45 planes were lost, one less than previously announced. The Press Association’s aviation correspondent says the term “very great strength” indicates that between 750 and 1000 bombers were employed.