AIR RAIDS IN GERMANY

Grey River Argus, 1 December 1944, Page 5

AIR RAIDS IN GERMANY

SIX CENTRES BOMBED. [Aust. & N.Z. Press Association] LONDON, November 29. R.A.F. Lancasters escorted by Spitfires and Mustangs on Wednesday afternoon attacked objectives in Dortmund. Mosquitoes on Wednesday night attacked -Hanover. On Wednesday morning early, Essen and Neuss were bombed by Lancasters and Halifaxes. There was not much resistance. At the end of the attack on the Essen area, some four square miles of cloud was glowing from the fires below. Mosquitoes bombed Nuremberg, and night fighters and Intruders supported bombers and attacked airfields. Three aircraft are missing. Over 1,000 Fortresses and Liberators attacked an oil refinery at Mis- : burg, railway marshalling fiards at | Hamm, and other targets in NorthI west Germany on * Wednesday. The i bombers were escorted by over a ' 1,000 Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings. Early this ' afternoon | Mosquitoes of the R.A.F. Bomber Command attacked objectives in the Duisburg area. Wing Commander Guy Gibson, V.C., D. 5.0., D.F.C., is officially reported as missing. He has not returned from an attack against Theydt, near Muenchen Gladbeach on the night of November 19. Gibs'on won the V.C. for the attack on the Mohne and Eder Dams in May, 1943. WEDNESDAY'S RAIDS. (Rec. 8.35). LONDON, November 30. On Wednesday there was improved weather, which enabled Allied air power again to show it? strength. More than a thousand bombers and fighters were in the air over Germany. Dunkirk that day had its heaviest raid for some time. Mitchells and Bostons bombed the garrison billets and forts on the outskirts. ■ Four of the bombers are missing from an American raid on Misburg, Hamm and other targets. No fighters werp lost. (Rec. 1.7.) LONDON, Nov. 30. The Air Ministry in a communique states: There are six bombers and one fighter missing from the raids on Dortmund and Duisburg yesterday. Mosquitoes last night attacked Hanover. Visibility was good, and bombing well concentrated. Enemy waters were mined. Intruders attacked airfields. None is missing. A picture of the conditions an Berlin was given by a neutral businessman who has just reached London l from Germany, via Switzerland. He said he did not visit the industrial.

areas in Berlin, which are believed to “Friedrichstrasse station has been destroyed,” he said. So have the big stores of Wertheim and Tietz, as well as the Hotel Kaiserhof. Most of the buildings in the Friedrichstrasse bitwise are gone. The main wing of tne Berlin police headquarters' has collapsed. Many houses around the lierearten have the upper _ floors razed. This is the work of British air mines, and the people of Berlin say they fear them terribly. They are dropped by Mosquitoes and, exploding -o■ to 50 yards above ground, they destroy everything' over a ra.dius of 300 yards. Houses, or blocks of houses, often burned for two or three days, and manv people buried under the debris , could not be saved. Attempts to rescue them are carried on for six or . seven days and then abandoned.. Thedebris is not disposed of, but it is just ? left collected on the site, which ha? - led to a substatial increase in rats and other vermin. Great stocks of furniture and other goods are left buried 'amongst the debris. The Ger- - mans cannot cope with The task of salvaging them, but aye very good in restoring traffic. While pavements in bombed districts may be closed for days, road traffic is normally restored within an hour of ‘all clear.’ “It is rumoured that an average of 400 persons, among them many foreign workers, are -shot every day in . the Floetzensee prison of Berlin for - favouring the enemy, or spreading ; false rumours. Prices on the black * market are very high. A pound of tea costs up to 500 marks (£35 sterling at pre-war exchange rate), a pound of coffee about £25, a pound of butter £6, and a cake of good soap costs £3 or 40 cigarettes. is - cheap—about 20/- for lib.