R.A.F. RAIDS

Grey River Argus, 24 November 1942, Page 3

R.A.F. RAIDS

In France and Italy [British Official Wireless]. RUGBY, Nov. 22. An Air • Ministry communique states: Last night Fighter Command! aircraft attacked railways and otnei targets in the course of offensive patrols over .'Northern France and -Belgium. None of our aircraft is miss- . .Five trains were attacked with bombs or machine-guns and cann .° l ] fire. A west riding squadron wa among . those who took part in tnes operation the squadron commander himself making two sorties, we destroyed a locomotive in the Aooeville yards on his second patrol ana shot up a long goods train. A Hu - ricane pilot came down to root lev to bomb two trains standing at Hazebrouck Station. Despite .the stream of flak, which was coming up at mm he made two further attacks wit his machine-guns, observing a se - ous outbreak of fire and also aarnage to one of the engines. _ Ctne •pilots who bombed two factories port clouds of white smoke foliowin* their attack. ■ . , • +;,v> oc Genoa lias been raided six times bv the R.A.F. since the opening oi tne A'llied offensive in the Mediterranean. The total duration of these raids was only two and a half hours, but t damage has been enormous. It co us only twelve aircraft in six attacKs. For a time at least, Genoa is knocke out as an effective Axis supply p

The damage in the port is believed, to include hits on the liners Augustus and Roma, both over thirty thousand tons. There are large areas in the city devastated b” fire. A message received a few days ago from a man’ who looked down from a hill on the devastated city, said:— “Burnt and destroyed areas m Genoa are so large and many, that it is useless to attempt to give details of the damage. Seen from the height, one has the impression that half the town is destroyed, and in, the port, almost everything seems destroyed, burnt or damaged.” . Pilot Officers N. S. Blafk (Christchurch), R. H. Brookhants and Sergeant A. W. Bashbourne (Auckland), participated in the big raid on Turin on Friday night. Flying Officer C. K. Silcock, D.F.C. (Nelson) and Flight Sergeant J'. A. Shephard (Christchurch) participated in the raid on Turin last Wednesday.

GERMANY AND ITALY.

ON SUNDAY NIGHT? (Rec. 11.44 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23. Royal Air Force bombers were over Germany on Sunday night. (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23. . A strong force of R.A.F. planes is believed to have carried out last, night a raid in Germany. The roar of heavy bombers was heard for an hour over Thames Estuary towns as waves of planes passed over. It is ‘reported, from Switzerland, air raid alerts were sounded at Basle, and Zurich last night. This is the usual prelude to an R.A.F. raid m Italy.