AGAIN HAMMERED

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

AGAIN HAMMERED

FRENCH CHANNEL PORTS. WHOLE COAST LIT UP. (R-ec. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 26. The R.A.F. again bombarded the French Channel porta for some hours. Early to-night the entire coast between Dunkirk and Boulogne appeared to be on fire, lighting up the country almost like daylight. Terrific explosions in the neighbourhood of Calais and Cape Gris Nez shook Kent. They were the heaviest of all the raids on the French coast. WIDE AREA BOMBED. All our aircraft returned safely from the extensive bombing operations over Germany, and the Channel ports last night, states a British Air Ministry communique. In Berlin aircraft of the Bomber Command attacked power stations, railway communications and the Tempelhof aerodrome. At Kiel the docks were bombed, and the goods yards at Osnabruck, Ehrang, Hamm, Mannheim and Hanover were also damaged. Shipping, barges, and quayside stores at Antwerp,, Flushing, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne were again attacked. Aircraft of the Coastal Command shot down an enemy bomber over the sea yesterday afternoon. Last night forces of the Coastal Command bombed the oil tanks at Brest. The tanks were set on fire and shipping in the harbour was also severely damaged. KIEL DOCKYARD VISITED. The strongly-defended naval dockyard at Kiel, in which the battleship Scharnhorst was lying, was attacked last night by a force of heavy bombers. Attacks by individual aircraft were made at intervals over a period of two hours, and many direct hits were scored on the targets. Sticks of heavy calibre bombs fell across the northern dockyard and one of the shipbuilding yards, and the brilliant, yellow flash of one big explosion was seen very close to the Scharnhorst. At Ehrang bomb bursts were seen in the centre of the railway yards, and one salvo was followed five minutes later by a violent explosion. Another great explosion with a vivid blue flash is believed to have marked a direct hit on an electrical power house. Flames and heavy explosions in the goods yard signalled the usual nightly bombardment of Hamm, and several bigfires were started in the yard at Mannheim. DOCKS AND SHIPS HIT. In the attack on Osnabruck many direct hits were scored on the tracks and a goods siding, and by the light of the fires started in the yard the crew of one bomber saw flying debris from a tall chimney which collapsed across a track. Over Germany . bomba were also dropped at Lubeclc, on the railway yards near Hanover and on the main line track at Lunen. A canal was straddled and dock gates were hit in an attack on the river portfof Haltern (south-west of Munster), and at Rendsburg (to the west of Kiel) a factory was- bombed and set on fire- Varel aerodrome and t'he AVarnemunde seaplane base were also attacked. In Belgium heavy and medium bomber forces raided the docks at Antwerp, and a large power station at Brussels. Bombs were seen in both cases to explode within the target area.

(Shipping concentrations and harbour installations at .Flushing, Dunkirk, Ostend, Calais and Boulogne were again heavily bombed, the raids starting in the early hours of Thursday morning . and continuing until shortly before dawn. The Polish crews operating with the R.A.F. took part in the attacks on Ostend, w'here hits were scored on the main wet docks and quayside basins in which a number of ships lay. The attacks were pressed home from low levels in the face of intense antiaircraft fire and the glare of many searchlights. In addition to the damage caused by high-explosive bombs they started heavy fires within the docks by incendiary bombs. FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS. Fires and heavy explosions were also reported at Calais by medium bomber crews, who delivered a concentrated attack lasting half an hour on locks and shipping basins. At Boulogne, which was raided at intervals for three and a-lialf hours, many violent explosions were caused. One described as terrific by an observer, momentarily lit up the whole town Great fires were started around the eight main basins and several of these whose flames leapt 200 ft into the air could be seen by the crews of aircraft approaching the target from 50 miles out at sea.