Key Aerodrome in Greece Blasted

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 151, 28 June 1943, Page 5

Key Aerodrome in Greece Blasted

LONDON, June 25.

Fifty Liberator bombers of the United States Air Force dropped 100 tons of bombs on the Sedes airfield at Salonika, Greece. The operation involved a journey of 1100 miles, ana the airfield, stated to be one of the finest in Greece, was left pitted with craters.

Throe hangars were hit and oil fires were started. At least three enemy planes on the ground were destroyed. No Liberators are missing. Leaflets were dropped in hundreds of thousands over Salonika.

“The main objective of the raid against Sedes was to wipe out the air training centre which the Germans were using as their main supply t>ase in the Mediterranean,” says the Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press. “The Germans had strongly built up and enlarged the air facilities in this area. At least five aerodromes haa been operating there, including a seaplane station. Sedes is described as a first-class air base and is the largest and most'important of these bases.”

The destruction was so extensive that the field is likely to be unserviceable for a long time. Pilots reported wide destruction to hangars, repair shops, barracks, and administration buildings. The attack apparently caught the enemy unawares.

Although the area has been regarded as heavily defended, it being the keypoint of Rommel’s new “Siegfried Line” in South-Eastern Europe, the ground defence was extremely light and no enemy fighters went up.

The pamphlets bore encouraging messages to the Greeks. The Cairo correspondent of Reuter’s says: “Roaring over the target in two waves, the Liberators blanketed the aerodrome with direct hits. Three largo hangars were blown up, and a string of bombs also fell over the dispersal areas which were so covered with dense smoke that the pilots were able to see only three planes destroyed.

“It was known that there was a concentration of enemy planes at Sedes and it is therefore possible that a great many others were destroyed,” the correspondent concludes. 77