R.A.F. NIGHT RAIDS

Grey River Argus, 7 December 1940, Page 5

R.A.F. NIGHT RAIDS

GERMANY & ITALY Turin Arsenal Pasted GERMAN PETROL FIRED. [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] LONDON, December 5. li is officially stated: Tne R.A.F. bombed targets at Turin, in north Italy on Wednesday night. inc bomber crews who raided Turin had tt better journey than those in aircraft which bombed industrial and transport targets in the DusSukion district. The first news of the bombing of Turin’s royal arsenal was a message from a bomber who uad just dropped bombs, saying; "Raid successful. Weather perfect.” The formidable assault on the great armament works at Turin was an impressive feature of a double attack on Itary, from bases in this country and in the Mediterranean. The royal arsenal wa s the chief oujective, and much was done to reduce the output of guns, carriages, shell cases, and tanks. The raid began som e time after 9 p.m., and continued for about two hours. A considerable number of large, iires were caused j ; amongst the arsenal buddings, also at the Fiat works, which were also attacked.

One by one, as they returned to their various stations, th e pilots and crews confirmed one another’s accounts of the success of the attacks. An Italian communique states; One Force dealt to Germany's od supplies was killed and thre e were injured, during R.A.F. raid on Turin. Several fires in the vicinity of a hospita. were soon , extinguished. Wool ractories and a carpet factory were hit. Details of blows the Royal Air were given in an Air Ministry communique. At Dusseldorf'the'raiders had little success with the weatner, and had to journey to their target through thick cloud and rain. lhe raiders might hav e had to seek other objectives, but a lucky cloud gap enabled the first arrivals to get bombs on yards in the Dusseldorf distr.ct and the Rohrenwary armament works, quays,’and dockyard along the Rhine, and the Dusseldorf coal and ga s plants. During the raid, which lasted for nearly 12 hours, the goods yards at Neusi and Dortmund were also bombed from other aircraft, as well as docks and shipping at Antwerp, Ostend, and Calais. Synthetic oil plants in many places had been repeatedly bombed. At Stettin, th e Baltic port, supplies of aviation petrol had been burping for three days. At Hamburg, one of the largest fires that city had seen had oeen caused when oil and kerosene stores were set alight. At Bordeaux, petrol tanks had been blazing for three days. These losses had caused the Germans many difficulties, and shortages of fuel are now becoming apparent. A German communique, for tne first time for some weeks, makes no claims regarding attacks on sffippmg. It boasts of fictitious fires in lamdon, and admits that the R.A.F. bombed West Germany, claiming, us usual, that only dwellings were damtaged. “All we hear about our counterattacks against. Germany are such time-worn phrase s as heavy damage was caused and fires could bo seen blazing fifty miles away.” The “Daily Express” says tn.s, in an appeal to the Air Ministry to publish pictures of the colossal bomb damage to Germany. The Admiralty has other methods. The publication of th e Taranto pictures stirred the world] and was admitted to be the fnest piece of British propaganda since the sinking of the Grar Spee. The striking power of the Royal Air Force is not only causing ler.or to the German troops in France, hut also to Hitler himself. A dispatch from a French correspondent suggests that Hitler is hying more than ever in dread of a violent death. The correspondent states that when he comes to France in ms armoured train. Hitler is preceded several hundreds of his bodyguard, whose duty it is to seek out any would-be assassin. Moreover, Tiller does not trust the French hotels. H.s guards ar e ordered to seek out the most formidable and secluded railway tiqnnel<they can find and tinm his heavily ar/moured train—symbol of the love and trust between the dictators and their victims —is shunted into the tunnel. There, in the twilight of the gods, Hitler goes to sleep.