Air Forces Hammer German Lifelines

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 205, 30 August 1944, Page 5

Air Forces Hammer German Lifelines

GRBAT OFFFENSIVES FROM MEDITERRANEAN BASES Received Tuesday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, Aug. 28. Not a single fighter was seen during yesterday’s heavy Allied air attacks on rail targets in Northeast Italy and synthetic oil plants in Silesia, says a correspondent. Reconnaissance shows that an excellent concentration of bombs hit vital parts of both the oil plants attacked and one is temporarily out of action. The total strategic damage to the main rail routes is assessed as follows: The Brenner line over the Alps is cut at Avisio where the viaduct has a 75foot gap in the centre and a trail of damage leading northwards 750 feet. A tine from Northeast Italy to Vienna is cut and the line from Northeast Italy Into Yugoslavia is temporarily blocked. The Ferrara rail bridge over the Fo is impassable from the north. In Northern Italy the railway blits still centred around Bologna—the bottleneck for the movement of supples aili reinforcements into the Gothic Line. Desert Air Force aircraft claimed direct hits on the railway bridge and tunnel moqth and other planes got good results on roads and defence positions in the Gothic Line itself. During the week-end the Tactical Air Force knocked out 19 bridges, about half in Southern France and the remainder in Italy. Fighter-bombers set on fire a 7000-ton vessel. R.A.F. Halifaxes, Wellingtons and Liberators without loss made two successful successive night attacks on Pesaro on the Adriatic coast. Coastal air forces attacked Genoa harbour. The Balkan Air Force in Yugoslavia yesterday strafed a convoy of troops and horsedrawn transport causing many casualties. Spitfires scored hits on a hotel at Dubbrovnik in which a German conference was believed to be in session. We lost five aircraft. Ranging at a low level over the French-German border area and over Holland and Belgium Allied fighters on Monday bombed and strafed key junctions essential to the enemy’s attempt to bolster up his defences. The toll was 270 locomotives disabled, 265 railicarß destroyed and 1231 damaged, 237 trucks and other army vehicles shot up or bombed, two ammunition trains blown up and several other ammunition cars set on fire. Fighters also destroyed 13 aircraft in the air and eight on the ground. Nineteen fighters failed to return. An Air Ministry communique says: R.A.F. Halifax and Lancaster heavy bombers covered by Spitfires in daylight last evening attacked twelve flying-bomb launching sites in North France. Visibility was good and all the targets were clearly identified. A force of Mosquitoes last night attacked Essen. Mines were laid in enemy waters. One bomber is missing.