R.A.F. RAIDS

Grey River Argus, 10 September 1940, Page 5

R.A.F. RAIDS

IN FIVE COUNTRIES On Three Nights BOULOGNE’S SECOND BOMBING. [British Official Wireless] RUGBY, September 8. ’ On Friday night R.A.F. planes heavily bombed Boulogne harbour. , for the second night in succession. On Thursday night, bombs were rained on th e harbour, which was left ringed with fire and extensively damaged; and it suffered further heavy damage in last night’s attack. Blenheim bombers of th e Coastal Command, and Fleet Air Arm Albacores made last night’s attack. The aircraft made individual dive attacks and dropped nearly five tons of high explosive bombs interspersed with incendiaries. The main basin was tra- ( versed Bom end to end, and numer ous direct hits were mad 1? on dock buildings and railway sidings which had escaped damage in th ( . previous bombardments. Many major explosions followed. Eomb bursts and successions of explosions were still taking place when th e bombers wenback over the English coast, suggesting that artillery and ammunition stores had been among the targets destroyed, Calais was also attacked, and the gun emplacements nt Cap Gris Nez were also bombed. IN GERMANY. On Friday night oil and bnzine storage plants at Regensburg, soutn of Nuremburg, 1,350 miles fispm Britain and near the Czechoslovakian frontier, were attacked. On the way to the target, the bombers encountered intens, e opposition from ground defences at Aachen and Cologne, but they took the defences of Regensburg by surprise. On the way back the i machines flew over the aerodrome at Nuremburg, and, as one of the pilots I said, they had some target practice. Th e attack at Regensburg was no hit and run affair. One of the pilots said the machines cruised over their target for mor e than 40 minutes, and when they had dropped their bombs they cam e down to 500 feet and machine-gunned the target without meeting any opposition.

Stettin was also revisited and hits scored on the oil plants and refineries. Th e attack on this Baltic pott lasted for an hour. The hail of bombs was so intense and the glar e so great that at stage it was impossible for tbc piolts of the British machines to see the flashes of the explosion of their own bombs.

Royal Air Force bombers again visited military objectives in the Black Forest, near the Swiss frontier, and [ the Oberharz Forest, near Berlin. In i the Black Forest, incendiary bombs I started fires 60 miles wide. One 61 the British pilots saw in the Oberharz forest, rows and rows of long build- ( ings, not houses, but more lik e .large j military barracks. His first lot of in- ' cendiary bombs fell on the buildings ■ and started fires, and fires Were also j started tn the surrounding forest. -Some of the crews reported -being able to se e the fires 40 and 60 miles away. * ! ' Other raids wer (S made on the oil tank s at Kiel, the naval docks at Emden, railway yards at Hamm, and several _aerodromes in Germany and Holland. These were only the highlights of what must hav, 3 been one of the biggest and most" effective raids of the war. From all of these raids only three British machines have not returned. IN ITALY. The Fiat aircraft works at Turin were th e main target of the raids on Friday night over northern Italy. Here the British machines met with intense opposition, but all got homo safely after ' doing . a tremendous amount of damage. Hits were, scored on th e car testing trepk on the roof of the main Fiat building. Bombs also went througn the roof, and fires w_er e started. An adjacent aircraft factory was so battered that only the walls of the building appeared to be standing when the raid was over. ...

1 LATER RAIDS IN GERMANY. i RUGBY, September 8. 1 Th e Air Ministry states:— Explosions followed bombing attacks on the rail depots at Mannheim, Ehrang, and Hamm. In the Black Forest, further attacks were made on war materials stored in the woods, and great fires were started. j Gun emplacements and searchlight batteries near Calais were bombed, and in an attack on the Colmar aerodrome, bombs fell through the roof of a hangar, and flames bursting through the doors, set fire to aircraft outside. Other aerodromes attacked wer e Gilzerijen, Wesel, and Krefeld in Germany, Brussels in Belgium, Querqueville in France, and Soesterburg and Eindhoven in Holland. From these widespread operations, all our aircraft returned. An Air Ministry communique, this evening, states: Determined attacks on enemy shipping in occupied Channel ports were pressed homi* by our bombers.

NAVAL BOMBERS’ ACTIVITY. An Admiralty communique states: Aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm hav« again been operating over the coast of Norway. On Saturday night, in spite of poor visibility and vigorous defences, at Calais, bombs burst between the basin and th e entrance to the harbour. Direct hit s wer e made on barges in th P harbour at Ostend, and more barge ' concentrations'' were heavily attacked at Dunkirk. Crossing the coast, other bombers attacked th e Krupps works at Essen, and more factories at Emden and Zweibruchen. Skuas and Swordfish sighted two enemy supply ships. 'A hit was obtained on one of these, and the ship when last seen was abandoned and sinking. other was seriously damaged by near misses, and wlien ■last seen wa s stopped, with a heavy list, and was abandoned by the crew. Thes e were ths. only two sTiips seen All pur aircraft returned safely. GERMAN REPORT. BERLIN, September 8. A communique states: The enemy flew over Germany. One wave, head-

,ed southwestward bombing sporadically, causing no damage. Another formation of British bombers attempted to raid Berlin, but was forced back by concentrated defence action. They dropped bombs pre.maturejy. damaging a church i.at fHamm ITALIAN REPORT. ROME, September 8. An Italian commun que stated: “Enemy aeroplanes again' raided Turin, arriving as usual from Switzerland. They damaged private houses and demolished the upper floors of a building In the populous quarter of San Paolo. The tenants had to takp refuge, ■ but were not hurt. Several railway cars were set on fire. Other bombs wer e dropped in open country outside the city, but. there was no damage.”

BOULOGNE RAID. RUGBY, September 8. Blenheim bombers of the Coastal Command and the Fleet Air Arm Albacores made an attack on Boulogne harbour on Friday night. Aircraft made individual dive attacks and dropped nearly five tons of high explosive bombs interspersed with incendiaries. The main basin was traversed from end to end, and numerous direct hits were made on dock buildings, and railway sidings, which had escaped damage in previous bombardments. Many major explosions followed. Bomb bursts and successions of explosions were still taking place when the bombers were back over British territory, suggesting artillery ammunition stores had been among the targets destroyed.