COLOGNE AGAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 143, 19 May 1941, Page 7

COLOGNE AGAIN

TARGET OF THE R.A.F. BATTERING RAIDS. LONDON, May 18. Although there was only slight enemy air activity over Britain to-day—no bombs are reported to have been dropped—and raiding was on a very small scale last night, the R.A.F. again attacked enemy targets. A heavy raid yvas carried out on Cologne, where the bombers left the industrial area burning fiercely. Other attacks were carried out on the docks at Rotterdam and Boulogne. Wave after yvave of R.A.F. bomlicrs attacked the French coast from Dunkirk to Boulogne for tho third successive night, says a Press Association report. The heaviest explosions yet board rocked houses on the south-east coast of England. Cape Gris Ncz and Calais seemed to receive specially heavy bombing. According to the Press Association, the Air Ministry says that enemy activity over Britain last night yvas on a small scale. A few bombs yvere dropped at one or two points in the cast of England. A little damage and a small number of casualties are reported from one place.

i SHIPS AND AERODROMES. Mentioning attacks on Cologne and ! shipping off the Norwegian coast a communique states: “Two aircraft are ! mising. Aircraft of the Coastal Coin--1 mnnd on Thursday night bombed shipi ping in French and Dutch harbours, j and Aircraft of the Fighter Command j attacked a number of aerodromes iu enemy - occupied France. Several ! R.A.F. aerodromes yvere attacked durI ing the night, but the damage noj where was serious and the number of i casualties yvas very small.” A German 1 communique states that strong formations of the R.A.F. attacked many places in Germany. A number of civilians wore killed or injured and damage of certain importance caused. The Lyoits radio announced that the Italian Consulate at Hamburg yvas badly damaged during a recent R.A.F. raid. R.A.F. bombers attacked targets on the French coast for several hours early on Friday. The attack appeared from the south coast ol England to be heavier than any made recently and to he concentrated chiefly on Calais and Boulogne. j American-built Havocs yvere again ; among the aircraft of the t ighter i Command active over enemy aero- j dromes on Thursday ; four aerodromes : were bombed. A pilot who had al- j ready dropped his bombs elsewhere, saw on another aerodrome an enemy aircraft landing along the (larepatli. He dived on it and opened fire. At one enemy air base bombs hit a building 1 and started what the pilot called “quite a good lire.” At another aerodrome a tighter • pilot sayv a machine j taxi-ing across the landing. He fleyv j doyvn and released his load ol bombs right across the aerodrome. Sir V. Warrender,. M.P., in a speech | said the R.A.F. was known to have hit more than SO vessels with bombs in “home” yvaters in the past month. The tonnage involved yvas yvcll over 180,000. of which at least 60,000 bad j been sunk. PE RI LOUS A D VENTURE. i

An exciting and perilous journey home in a damaged aeroplane alter the recent attack in daylight on Heligoland yvas described in a broadcast by a sergeant-pilot. After referring to the clockwork precision oi the attack .he said :

“We did not hang about longer than we bad to and, with all that anti-air-craft fire about, l was taking violent evasive action almost at sea-level. 1 do not know whether a burst above the aircraft pushed me down, or whether*a very high wave caught us, but suddenly the left side of the aircraft was covered by a whirling mass of white foam, and 1 knew that the port airscrew- had struck the sea and was churning it up. With all my strontgh I pulled back the control colu mil.

“Hitting the sea must have pulled us round, lor ! found that yve were heading back to the guns on tho island. We turned yvest again, keeping fairly level at 100 ft. The port airscrew was useless, having been badly bent when it hit the sea. Then a small but power-fully-armed German convoy suddenly appeared out ol the mist and fired at us. We yvere a pretty lame duck, but wc turned and managed to get away.” The pilot proceeded to describe how, after lie bad sent the first distresssignal. the useless port airscrewdropped off and tlie remaining engine began to vibrate so badly that he had to. stop climbing. “So long as we stayed in ihe air,” lie said, “there were two courses open to us—either to give tho engine an extra boost and risk tearing it to bits with vibration, or jog along and slowly sink. i decided to climb and, as L did so, sent out- another distress signal.” The plane was about 40 miles from the coast and night was coming on, but eventually England w as reached and the plane, despite a badly-damaged undercarriage, made a safe landing. j