HAVOC IN COLOGNE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 100, 27 March 1942, Page 2

HAVOC IN COLOGNE

DEVASTATION BY R.A.F. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Kec. 1.40 p.m.) RUGIiV, Jiar. 20. Cologne on the night of March 13-14 suffered almost certainly its worst attack of the war. This is proved by a succession of clear, though small-scale, photographs taken in daylight. These reveal even more damage than had been expected after the examination of night photographs, which by no means covered every phase of the concentrated attack. !

In the Nippes district, the northern and largely industrial part of the town, tuero was a direct hit with' a large bomb on the railway yard and waggons were throtfn off the lines. At the south end of this yard several railway workshops were completely burnt out and others damaged by high explosives. The damage here cover'. 75,000 square yards, occupied entirely by workshops. East of these workshops an exceptionally heavy bomb completely destroyed buildings once cover* i ing 600 square yards, and all around there was much damage from Masted buildings. The Franz Clouth rubber works, which produced tyres, tubes, and other war waterial, were knocked out; the works had a spread of 168.000 square yards. A large part was actu ally razed to the ground, several sheds were gutted by hre ana many jther» badly damaged. On the. same side there were six points of substantial damage, all the result of direct hits on cioseiybuilt areas.

A little to the north of this side of the river another of the heaviest bombs brought down a corner block and smashed several other buildings. Southwards, into the main city area, the trail of destruction continues. South-west of the main railway station there were direct hits on large blocks, with additional damage by fire. A thousand yards west of the Cathedral a heavy bomb largely destroyed a block of buildings which covered 16.000 square yards, with much blast damage a long way beyond this limit. A smaller block immediately south of the city's principal square has been so completely smashed that the crater of the bomb can be seen where the block once stood. Buildings around it have been wrecked, and further south of the main square another bomb destroyed several buildings. In the vicinity of the Hohenzollern Bridge and along the banks of the river large and small buildings covering many thousands of square yards are shown in the photographs to have been destroyed. "Whole streets are shown to l>e uninhabitable.—Official "Wireless.