FAR FLUNG RAIDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 239, 6 September 1940, Page 7

FAR FLUNG RAIDS

ON ENEMY TERRITORY EIRES AND EXPLOSIONS. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received September 6, 11.35 a.m.’ RUGBY, Sept. 5. An Air Ministry communique states: “Last night R.A.F. bombers penetrated enemy territory as far as Stettin, on the Baltic, where a successful attack oil a synthetic oil plant was carried out.

“Other forces of our bombers attacked military objectives concealed in tlie llartz Alountains, the Gruemvald Forest, and the Black Forest. Alany fires and explosions followed these attacks.

“Our aircraft also bombed a power station and an aircraft factory in Berlin. Other objectives last night included oil stocks at Alagdeburg, a goods yard at Naremburg (south of Bremen), and several aerodromes in enemy-occupied France and Belgium. Aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked the oil tanks at Cherbourg and the docks at Terneuzen (Holland). From these widespread operations two of our aircraft have not returned and one crashed on landing.

GROWING NERVOUSNESS. POPULATION OF BERLIN. LONDON, Sept. 5. Reports from various sources indicate that tlic hammering that is being given by the R.A.l'. to Germany is disillusioning the population about Marshal Goerings boast of the country’s invulnerability. A Bucharest message says a Rumanian visitor to Leipzig stated that the autumn lair lias been a complete failure because of the British air raids. The fair closed two days early, and many visitors cut their stay short because they had been having sleepless nights. The Berlin correspondent of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that the population of Berlin are in an extremely nervous condition; they stay awake for long hours expecting raids. A promise by the Government of an extra coffee ration as a stimulant is most welcome because Berliners have for long been short of coffee.

A dispatch from Zurich (Switzerland) says many more anti-aircraft batteries have been established in Berlin, Aladgeburg, and Leipzig, and the German Press assures tlie jieople that British planes will henceforth he prevented from reaching Berlin. The Times says that a German News Agencv statement that the Berlin anti-aircraft defences have been rearrang ed. “thus baffling the enemy,’’ is very significant viewed alongside the recent assertion by the German High Command that the anti-aircraft defences arc so effective that they have prevented R.A.F. bombers from reaching tlieir objectives. The Berlin correspondent of t'lio Associated Press of Great Britain says that an air raid which began shortly after midnight last night sent Berlin residents scurrying to their cellars and shelters, where they remained for two hours. British bombers could be heard flying over the capital amid terrific anti-aircraft fire.

BLACK-OUT PRAISED

A flight-lieutenant who participated in three raids on Berlin declared that the black-out was extremely good. He added that the black-out throughout Germany was. generally better than the black-out in Britain, where there was sufficient light in the towns to enable them to be picked out. The headlights of ears moving along the roads could be observed.

A Berlin News Agency statement concerning t‘he raids on Berlin says: “Numerous British planes again attempted to penetrate the belt of the city’s anti-aircraft defences, but only isolated planes succeeded in reaching the centre of the capital.” German radio stations began the day’s programmes with statements that the British had dropped highexplosive- bombs and incendiaries in several parts of the Reich during the night. Most of the bombs, it was claimed, fell on open fields. It is officially stated in Berlin that this evening only two British bombers reached Berlin, the others being driven back by fighters and anti-aircraft fire. One bomb fell in the Tiergarten, killing a policeman. Another hit an army warehouse in a northern suburb. For the third successive night the R.A.F. bombed the Boulogne-Calais area. There were some explosions so icrrific that houses on the seafront of a south-east coastal town were rocked. Anti-aircraft shells stabbed the sky, while searchlights on both sides of the Channel lit up the sea almost like day.