German Fighters Footed In Raid on Stettin

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 5

German Fighters Footed In Raid on Stettin

LONDON, Jan. 6.

Alarmed at the danger to Berlin, the Luftwaffe again sent fighter packs' to defend the capital last night, leaving the door wide open for the great force of Lancasters, with a smaller number of Halifaxes, to get through to Stettin.

Judging from what happened, said an R.A.F. station commander, the Germans become so rattled whenever bombers approach that Berlin comes first and the rest a long way behind. The Germans seemed to be hopelessly confused by the light force of Mosquitoes which bombed Berlin a quarter of an hour before the attack on Stettin, which is under 100 miles from Berlin, and at almost any point on the last stages of the journey the main force might have turned and made for the capital. A London cable says that a small force of Flying Fortresses yesterday shattered the vital Baeur and Schaurte factory near Dusseldorf producing about half of the high-grade nuts and bolts used in German war industry. The British United Press’s correspondent at a U.S.A.A.F. bomber station says that the Fortresses did litft start out to bomb the factory. They found it through a gap in the clouds after an unsuccessful attempt to bomb their assigned targets.