RAID ON DRESDEN

Grey River Argus, 15 February 1945, Page 5

RAID ON DRESDEN

800 Planes Take Part FIRST MAJOR ATTACK (Rec. 10.30). LONDON, Feb. 14. The German radio on Tuesday reported enemy bombers were over Cologne, Dusseldorf, Magdeburg, Leipsig, and Dresden. Berlin .radio announced 15 minutes after midnight that it was closing down owing to the approach of enemy bombers. The Bomber Command on Tuesday night despatched 1400 planes to Germany. The main objective was Dresden. An official announcement says Dresden is a centre of a railway network and a great industrial town, and has become of the greatest value for conducting any defence the Germans may organise against Koniev’s armies. A synthetic oil plant, Bohlen, south of Leipsig, was attacked. Magdeburg was also bombed. (Rec. 1.20) LONDON, Feb. 14

The Air Ministry News Service says: Eight hundred of fourteen hundred planes despatched over Germany last night attacked Dresden. It was the first major attack launched against the city.' The attack was carried out in two waves with an interval of three and a quarter hours. Cloud obscured the target in the first attack, but the sky cleared when the second force reached the city, enabling visual bombing, and the crews could see the effect of the first attack.

Dresden at present is a place of vital importance to the enemy, says the Air Ministry. Its telephone services and other communications are almost as essential to the German Army as railways and roads meeting at Dresden. Its buildings are desperately needed for troops and administrative services evacuated from other towns. Dresden possesses large ammunition workshops, light engineering works, and important precision factories.