DIRECT HITS SCORED BY R.A.F.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 96, 21 March 1940, Page 7

DIRECT HITS SCORED BY R.A.F.

HINDENBURG DAM BOMBED LITTLE OPPOSITION ENCOUNTERED (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received March 21, 9.10 a.m. LONDON, March 20. The widespread damage inflicted on the German naval base of Hornum, on the Island of Sylt, by day.and night has been revealed as one after another of the British ’planes have returned to their bases. The crews of several aircraft claimed direct hits on hangars, railways, barracks and slipways, and saw many fires. They encountered little opposition . from enemy fighters, although anti-aircraft guns were continually alive. Visibility over Sylt generally was good. The British ’planes attacked in small groups, diving suddenly from low clouds and quickly returning to the clouds. They bombed the Hindenburg Dam, the vital railway connection between Sylt and the mainland. At about 10 p.m. another machine, whipping in suddenly from the north-west, dropped several more bombs on the dam and registered hits as the result of which huge tongues of flame and smoke shot up. Another machine dropped two bombs on the big naval station at Hornum and then travelled the full length of Sylt and dropped two bombs on Ran turn before disappearing, apparently unscathed, across the North Sea. Weather conditions over the greater part of Denmark were very bad, with freezing rain and snow. Traffic was brought to a standstill and the railways were dislocated. Unidentified ’planes dropped two bombs on the west coast of Danish Jutland and tore craters, but there was no other damage.