ALLIED AIR RAIDS

Grey River Argus, 6 April 1943, Page 5

ALLIED AIR RAIDS

HEAVY RAID ON KIEL Also U-Boat Bases 12 BOMBERS MISSING. (Rec. 12.15.) LONDON, April 5. Bomber Command nlanes in great strength on Sunday night attacked the naval base and ship-building yards at Kiel, stated an Ah’ Ministry communique. Heavy cloud made full observation of results impossible, but several large fires were seen in the target area. Thete are twelve bombers missing. Berlin radio admits that British bombers dropped high explosives and incendiaries on the north' coast of Germany on Monday night, but it claims that only slight damage was caused.

PARIS AND ESSEN

[British Official Wireless], RUGBY. April 4. A large force of American heavy bombers attacked successfully the Renault factories at Billancouy, on the outskirts of Paris on Sunday. The weather was clear, and the target heavily and accurately bombed, and left on fire. Strong opposition. by enemy fighters was encountered on the return, and 25 were destroyed by the Fortresses. The final total will not be announced until all combat imports have been assessed. Ovex- the French coast, R.A.F., Dominion and Allied fighters, covering the withdrawal of the bombers, joined in combat and destroyed eight enemy planes. Four’ bombers and seven fighters are missing. The British Air Ministry states: On Sunday Fighter and ' Bomber .Command aircraft carried out large-scale operations ovex - Northern France and the Low Countries. Bombers escorted by fighters, attacked the aerodrome at Caen and railway yards at St. Brieue. Fighter-bombers bombed the docks at Dieppe and railway yards at Abbeville. Other fighters made covering and diversionary sweeps and attacked enemy coastal shipping. Three enemy fighters were destroyed in these operations, from which two bombers and five fighters are missing. Coastal Command aircraft made several attacks o n Sunday on enemy shipping off the Norwegian coast. At least two ships were hit with torpedoes, and on e of them sank. One Coastal Command aircraft is missing. The Air 1 Ministry states that on Friday night aircraft of the Bomber Command attacked the submarine bases al L’Orient and St. Nazaire. Mines were also laid in enemy waters. There was favourable weather. At L’Orient the Germans still base more submarines there, in bombproof pens under some 15ft of concrete, than in any other Atlantic port. Only small fires wer e seen last night, but many high explosive bombs were dropped and must have caused still , more disorganisation and made Life even’more uncomfortable for the submarine crews ashore, and Germans who have to work maintaining and repairing the U-boats. The defences were active, particularly light anti-aircraft guns. St. Nazaire.. which was also bombed on Friday night, is the most important of the U-boat bases in the Bay of Biscay. It has not yet been so devastated as L’Orient. In spite of some ground haze large fires and majoi’ explosions, too large for bomb bursts, were seen by several crews.

The Air Ministry News Service says.—On Saturday during an. attack by fighter bombers of the Fighter Command on the airfield at Abbeville a supporting Canadian Spitfire wing led by an English lying Commander destroyed five Wulf 190’s and damaged others for the loss of one Spitfire. All th P fighter bombers returned safely. The Squadron Leader who led the fighter bombers said: “Wo bombed the airfield and scored direct hits all over it. Judging by the bomb bursts it was a very successful attack. I got a small bit of flak in the tail of m,v aircraft, but, that was almost the only" damage the ground forces were able to inflict. After the attack one of our chaps shot up the aerodrome with cannon.” On Saturday without loss to themselves or to bombers they had as their charges, Spitfires of the Fighter Command also escorted Venturas of the Bomber Command to attack the docks at Brest. No enemy fighters were encountered. The Air Ministry News also says:— In Saturday nights raid on Essen, Krupps works were hit. At one stage six 4000-pounders were falling every minute. Within half an hour a huge pall of smoke had rolled over the city and many fires were burning fiercely underneath. Many crews spoke of a tremendous explosion which was just as if somebody bad thrown gallons of petrol on a fire.There were two such explosions. Photographs taken during the attack show the vast Krupps’ Works were hit again. They were badly damaged during two attacks last month, but there are 800 acres of therrj and the German's had made an obvious effort to save the rest. There were more guns, more _ searchlights, and more night fighters defending the city than ever before. A pilot who had taken part in 28 sorties over Germany said he had never seen a more spectacular defence. The target area was covered with glittering white lights from incendiaries. Searchlights were working in cones of about 30 each. As soon a s a cluster spotted an aircraft it held on to it with its 1 beam. Then another cone would take it on. It was as if the planes were being tossed from, one to another. There was slight ground haze last night, but the sky above the city was clear. Essen has always been the most heavily defended area in Germany, with the possible” exception of Berlin It has a concentration of anti-aircraft guns and Searchlights disposed over many miles in depth around it. All attacking aircraft have to flv for a’ maximum period through this super-defended zone. Last night’s defences seemed much heavier than ever before. . Twenty-one bombers are missing.

Details of Paris Raid STIFFER OPPOSITION TO AMERICANS. (Rec.-7.45) LONDON April 4. A British United Press correspondent at a Flying Fortress base somewhere in England says: Germans threw swarms of crack* Yellownose Messerschmitts into- ■ lair combats which developed after a 1 United States Air Force raid on Billancourt, where Flying Fortresses dropped their loads practically dowh smoke stacks. There appeared to be training planes also among the attackers. The enemy planes assailed the Fortresses for half an hour after they had left the target. The U.S. pilots agreed that the opposition was -the stiffest that has thus far been put up against them. The Berlin radio stated that American bombers attacked the town area of Paris, and dropped their bombs in residential areas where they killed over one hundred people.