CRIPPLING AIR RAIDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 257, 27 September 1940, Page 7

CRIPPLING AIR RAIDS

BERLIN’S MILITARY OBJECTIVES DEVASTATING RAF. ATTACKS (United Press Association.—Copyright.— Rec. 10.5 a.m.) (British.'Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 26. Last night’s long air raid on Berlin is described in an Air Ministry bulletin which says: From soon after 10 p.m. until the early hours of the morning Heavy bombers of the R.A.F. kept up a series of attacks on important military objectives in and around Berlin. Pour separate attacks within an hour were made on the Klingenberg power station, in the heart of the industrial section to the east of the city. This station, known as Gross Draffwerk Klingenberg, has an output capacity of 300,000 kilowatts and is the power-supply source of some of the city’s largest industrial concerns. Sticks of heavy calibre bombs burst on and around the station, the bombing being followed by an outbreak of fire.

VARIETY OF TARGETS. The West Power station, two miles south of Tegel See, which was already heavily damaged in previous raids, was again attacked and a large fire started. Salvoes of liigli-explosives were dropped . oir the Sclioneberg railway yards, three miles south-west of the centre of the city and on the main railway junction near the Charlottenburg district, one of the chief residential quarters of the city. In an attack on Berlin’s main airJiort at Tempelhof a ’ine of bombs were aid across the north part of the aerodrome and the nearby railway sidings were also bombed. Another raider which arrived o.ver the eastern outskirts of the city *six minutes before midnight cruised above the industrial district for 20 minutes, searching for the target under heavy fire from the ground batteries. After five parachute flares had been released the target, a munition factory at Rudersdorf, 17 miles east of Berlin, was located and bombed, and a fire was seen to break out. BERLIN REPORT. The Berlin News Agency states that British planes again attacked the capital at night, bombing at random residential quarters in the outer suburbs and destroying a number of dwellings and bungalows. The British Associated Press Berlin correspondent states that the R.A.F.’s longest raid kept Berliners in the chilly shelters most of the night. Tlie R.A.F. bombers stayed over the industrial suburbs, but two waves flew over the centre of the city. No . bombs were dropped, and there were no fires in the central district. In Berlin informed circles stated that the R.A.F. raid last night destroyed eight blocks of flats and killed two and wounded five civilians. The R.A.F. is reported to have raided Northern and Western Germany. Three were killed.