BERLIN RAID

Grey River Argus, 18 February 1944, Page 5

BERLIN RAID

2500 Tons in 20 Minutes [Aus. & N.Z. Press Assn.] LONDON, Feb. 16. Over 2500 tons of bombs .were dropped on Berlin in Tuesday night’s R.A.F. raid. The Air Ministry states: The number of aircraft missing in Tuesday night’s operations of (the Bomber; Command was 43. not 45. The largest bomber force so far attacked Berlin at a" rate of over 70 tons a minute, dropping 2500 tons between 9.15 p.m. and 9.45. More than 1000 aircraft were despatched. The greater number were Halifaxes and Lancasters. All these concentrated on Berlin, except Lancasters which made a feint attack on Frankfurt-on-Oder. More than fen hour after the attack Mosquitoes were making the work of Berlin’s fire brigade dangerous. Their crews reported an enormous pall of black smoke over the city to a height of 20,000 feet. Cloud covered Berlin up to 10,000 feet. A glow of fire stretched across the target. Smoke began to filter through the clouds' before the mam force had finished. The flak was so violent when 'the fffist sky-marker-bombs were dropped it was evident the main night fightei* force, was late. Scattered fighter flares later began to appear, but even in the last stages of the attack many Crews bombed without opposition from fighters. The weather may have grounded some fighters. The Germans seemed unable to get a large enough number over Berlin to. intercept more than a small portion of the raiders. The raid made a busy night for air crews, but also a very long day for those on the ground. It took, roughly, ,4000 men to get bombs into the thousand aircraft. The work took ovei' five hours. Some 7000 flying personnel were briefed. There were something like 50 men working on the ground for each bomber in the air. We used well over a million gallons of petrol and many thousands of gallons of oil. The first bombers hit -Berlin just after 9 p.m. In 20 minutes the main force had delivered its load. By midnight, the crews were coming in to their bases with stories of Berlin burning again. One young member of the crew of a bomber said that the flak was heavy. A diversionary raid on Frankfurt, 50 miles west of Berlin, was made by a force of Lancasters. At the same time Mosquitoes attacked other targets in western Germany .and mines were laid in enemy waters. From all these operations 45 aircraft are missing. Berlin radio stated: British air Huns made another terror .attack against Berlin last night., and used favourable weather conditions and the thick cloud cover over Berlin to drop bombs at random over various districts. Extremely heavy antiaircraft fire met the terror planes and shot down a number over the citv area. Damage was caused particularly in residential districts, and several churches and hospitals were hit. The’ brave Berlin population, which once more stood up to the enemy terror with hard determination. ’suffered casualties. The Berlin radio also sain that British nlanes last evening raided Hammerfest, the northernmost town, in the world. It was a nuisance raid, in which no military objectives were hit. Two Norwegian coastal steamers were sunk. ALLIES' LOSSES RUGBY, Feb. 16. The Secretary for Air, Sir A. Sinclair, stated in the Commons that 2369 .British and 997 United States Army Air Force bombers operating | from Britain were reported lost over Germany ana northern Europe during 1943. The figures for January, 1944, were 319 British and 1(8 American planes.