AIR OFFENSIVE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 229, 26 August 1940, Page 7

AIR OFFENSIVE.

SEVERE BLOWS AT ENEMY. MANY TARGETS STRADDLED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Aug. 24. Aerodromes in occupied territories in France, from which German lighter and 'bomber squadrons are operating against Britain, were the chief objectives in last night’s raids by aircraft or the R.A.F. Bomber Command. Attacks distributed over a wide area were carried out by both heavy and medium bombers. Villa Coublay, the large military air base on the outskirts of Paris, was raided in the early hours of the morning. Bombs dropped in a low-level attack were seen td burst across the aerodrome. Parachute flares released illuminated the target and set lire to a wood on the east side of the landing ground.

Raiders operating nearly 250 miles away over South Brittany bombed aerodromes at Vannes, Saint Brieuc, Rennes, Dinard, Lanveoc, Poulmic, Guipavas and an important air base north of Brest.

In Normandy great fires, visible for many miles, were started on the aerodromes of Lisieux and Caen. InNorthern France the two aerodromes of St. Omer and Merville, which formerly served as bases for It.A.F. fighter units in France, were attacked and a fire started on the edge of the St. Oiher landing ground was followed a few minutes later by two heavy explosions. AERODROMES HIT. Another raider, penetrating 70 miles south of Paris, bombed the aerodrome of Orleans, where one salvo burst within SO yards of the main hangars. Glisy, the main airport of Amiens, and Beauvais aerodrome, well-known to travellers on the London-Paris route, were also attacked in the early hours of the morning. Gun emplacements at Hiaringzelle3 (on the French coast near -Cape Gris Nez) were, attacked for the second night in succession by a force of medium bombers, which repeatedly bombed gun positions from heights ranging rrom 10,000 ft to 4000 ft. Another French target successfully raided during the night was the hai~ hour works at Dieppe, where, af.ter the wharf had been bit, a series ol vivid white explosions broke out, followed by large fires and flashes, which could be seen 40 miles out to sea. British heavy bomber forces also paid the customary nightly visit to Germany, their objectives on this occasion being the important benzine refinery and storage plant at tSterkrade in the Ruhr, and the big railway yard at Mannheim. At Sterkrade lines of high-explosive bombs were seen to straddle the target, and direct hits are believed to have been scored on a pumping station and a fire started with incendiary bombs. A section of the ground defences, which became troublesome to the raiders, was effectively dealt with by a.salvo of bombs, which silenced the gun batteries and put the searchlights out of action. The. railway sidings at Mannheim were subjected to hours of heavy bombardment, during which the target was repeatedly straddled. Fires which started as the result of explosions in the centre of the shunting yard were seen to be still burning a quarter of an hour after the last aircraft left the scene. Eindhoven aerodrome, in Holland, was attacked shortly after midnight by a medium bomber, whose pilot, coming down to within 2000 feet of the ground, saw a bomb strike buildings on the aerodrome and extinguish the lighted flare path.