FACTORIES SMASHED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 38, 13 January 1944, Page 5

FACTORIES SMASHED

AMERICANS RAID REICH

FIERCE FIGHTS IN AIR ,

LONDON, Jan. 12. United States Headquarters state that more than 700 heavy bombers escorted by several types of fighters attacked targets in Germany yesterday.

The Germans put up a strong defence, and there were many fierce fights in which over 100 enemy planes were shot down, according to incomplete reports. Fifty-nine American bombers and five fighters are, missing.

The principal targets were aircraft factories and assembly p*nits and the results of the bombing were excellent. At Oschersleben, south-west of Magdeburg (Prussia), hits were scored on plants manufacturing aircraft and on machine shops. Oschersleben was raided in July last year. Plants at Halberstadt, a few miles south-west of Oschersleben, were heavily hit. Two factories were destroyed and another badly damaged. Travellers who arrived in Stockholm from Germany say isolated planes bombed Berlin between 11.30 and 12.15 yesterday. Targets cast of Berlin were also attacked. A Press Association cable says that Berlin is rapidly becoming a city without women, according to travellers arriving in Lisbon from the German capital. Some of the few women who are left have been conscripted to run restaurants for the men who l[.ave to remain but whose wives and children have been evacuated. The same system has been set up in Hamburg. Travellers also report that many Berliners have to go to bed at sunset because of lack of electricity, candles, and fuel, all of which are being used by the army.