TRAIN BLOWN UP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 168, 15 June 1940, Page 7

TRAIN BLOWN UP.

R.A.F. RAIDS IN FRANCE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 13. In R.A.F. operations in France an attacking force saw in the Seine Valley a convoy of armoured'fighting vehicles near crossroads protected by light and heavv guns. Direct hits with high explosives were made on four of the protecting guns, on two tanks and on at least six lorries. The principal targets attacked during the night included marshalling yards, railway lines, troop and ammunition trains and mechanised units. At one point an ammunition train was destroyed. One bomb falling directly on part of the train caused such a terrific explosion that, more than half a mile above, the windscreen of an aircraft was blown out. Other bombs wrecked the railway track for hundreds of yards. At Soissons, a centre of communication of great importance to the Germans, extensive damage ivas done to the railway junction. Great stretches of woodland to the south-east of Hirson, in which German troops and supply columns had sought concealment, were set alight, the flames in fjojn® instances blocking the roads. Behind the right wing of the enemy’s advance traffic'’ was disorganized bv the destruction of vital roads and railways. At the mouth of the Scheldt attacks were made by other heavy bombers on a battery of anti-aircraft guns, which ceased firing. Durine: the night one ot our aircraft encountered two enemy bombers and destroyed them both.