CHANNEL PORT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 167, 14 June 1940, Page 7

CHANNEL PORT

RAIDED BY X R.A.F. SUCCESSFUL ATTACK.. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received June 14, 10.5 a.m. RUGBY, June 13, During yesterday aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. in co-opera-tion with Coastal Command aircraft, carried out successful attacks upon enemy vessels in'Boulogne Harbour. A motor torpedoboat was blown up, and many bombs were seen to burst among other craft of this type and among ammunition barges. The harbour mole and military objectives ashore were also successfully bombed. „' , Last night aircraft of the Cpastal Command carried out a bombing attack on an enemy aerodrome in Norway. Hits were made on tlie runways, barracks, and upon enemy aircraft’ assembled at the aerodrome. Enemy supply ships were also bombed near Bergen: ATTACK ON VAERNES. Flying blind through rain, lowclouds and heavy mist, aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked the Vaernes Aerodrame in Norway, and the German supply ships near Bergen early this morning. The bombers dived 4000 ft on Vaernes Aerodrome. Conditions were difficult owing to the rain, but as there is now almost 24 hours’ daylight in Norway the pilots were able to see tlie bombs blow great holes in the runways and disable the Nazi aircraft parked there. Two bombs struck tlie German airmen’s barracks. The men rushed out, and one British aircraft scattered them with machine-gun bullets. The supply ships near Bergen were attacked bv successive waves of bombers. Here the weather was even worse. Tlie harbour and roadsteads were almost invisible. BLIND BOMBING. The pilots had flown blind across the North Sea. Now they had to do what amounted almost to blind bombing. Some could see only the flashes of their incendiary bombs through the mist and fog. But the navigators had brought them accurately on the targets and the many fires started were burning with growing fury as the aircraft turned ior home.

One wave of attackers saw incendiary bombs start fires among ships at anchor. One pilot was met by heavy anti-aircraft fire and bombed by an enemy battery. When he left the guns were silent and two big fires were burning. Other aircraft bombed a tort near Bergen and started fierce fares. Two German destroyers were also bombed by Coastal Command aircraft on a North Sea patrol, but in the thick mist they could not see the result ot their attack.

--- WIDESPREAD ASSAULTS. '- '“ln the, attack on Boulogne Harbour one enemy motor torpedo boat was sunk and two others damaged,” states an Air Ministry communique. “Damage was also done to a jetty, and a lorry park nearby was heavily machinegunned. The aerodrome at Vaemes, near Trondheim, and enemy supply ships and fort near Bergen were also successfully attacked. Over the. hattle zone in France our fighters shot down seven enemy aircraft yesterday. None of our fighters is missing. “Intensive bombing attacks by the R.A.F. on enemy concentrations in the areas east of Rouen continued throughout yesterday. Troop coneeutrations and columns of armoured fighting vehicles were heavily bombed. In the course of these operations three enemy bombers were shot down. Three of our aircraft are missing. “During the night heavy bombers ot the* R.A.F. carried out a series of attacks on the enemy’s lines of communication ranging from the cops! to the Forest of Ardennes. Damage was done to railway lines, roads and junctions. Ammunition dumps were blown up and fires started. Enemy aerodromes were also attacked, hangars destroyed and runways damaged. All our aircraft returned.” SPECTACULAR BOMBING. BRITISH AIRMEN’S SUCCESS. . (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 12. The R.A.F. spectacular bombing raid lasting ten minutes on enemy concentrations on the Lower Seine south-east of Rouen yesterday was followed by further sorties later in the day. The bomber force, after attacking enemy concentrations in the forest at La Mare and setting the woods on fire with incendiary bomhs, were themselves attacked by a "greatly superior number of Messersclimitt fighters.

One of our bombers encountering a formation of twelve Messershmitt 109’s was engaged by the fighters which attacked simultaneously from astern, above and below. One Messcrschmitt was almost immediately shot down in flames by a burst of fire from the British observer’s gun which tore chunks of metal out of the fighter’s wing roots. A few minutes later a second Messcrschmitt 109 was caught at close range by the bomber’s air gunner and was sent plunging down trailing a cloud of black smoke. Another bomber with six Messersclimitfc 109’s on its tail dived for cover into a cloud. On coming out it narrowly missed a head-on collision with the leader of the enemy’s formation which it had been evading. The fighter, apparently shaken by his narrow escape, did not pursue the engagement. -WANGANUI PILOT. A powerfully-built young man who looks like a first-class Rugby threequarter, Pilot-Officer A. C. Deere (the Wanganui airman who has been awarded the D.F.C.) is on where the late Pilot-Officer E. J. Kain left off, states a. Press Association message from London. , Deere was in the thick of the Flanders battle and was finally brought down with a slight hqgd wound. With the aid of abandoned motor-cars arid motor-cycles he succeeded in linking up with the B.F, F. unit on route to Dunkirk and eventually got to England aboard a destroyer under severe aerial bombardment. One of his first acts after his arrival was to go to New Zealand House and get a stencil of a kiwi with which to decorate his new ’plane. ‘ A ’plane believed to have been British, crashed in flames after apparently striking a barrage balloon cable on the East Coast, setting fire to a silo, flourmill, barges, rail trucks and a wharf. The ’plane and members of the crew have not been foundl