Bordeaux Oil Refineries, Tanks Blasted To Pieces

Northern Advocate, 16 August 1940, Page 5

Bordeaux Oil Refineries, Tanks Blasted To Pieces

(Received 2 pan.) LONDON, August 15

An Air Ministry communique says

“Last night strong forces of the R.A.F. attacked oil reserves and refining plants in enemy-occupied territory at Blaye. Pauillac and Ambes. i Tiie last-named is near Bordeaux.) “All three targets were left in flames. “Other bomber forces attacked railway sidings, and power stations at Cologne. “A number of attacks were made on enemy aerodromes in Northern Franco yesterday and last night. “Four British planes are missng.” Extraordinary Scene of Destruction. A British Official Wireless message says that last night’s attack on Bordeaux will have entirely deprived the enemy of the use of oil refineries and storage tanks—-among the most important. in France —so severe was the damage inflicted. An extraordinary scene of destruction was witnessed by pilots taking pen in the. raid. The refineries, with their compressors. pipe stilis. chimneys and buildings and the great storage tanks nearby, were reduced by a succession of heavy, accurate attacks to a vast mass of blazing wreckage, from which streams of burning oil could be seen flowing along the ground. Glare Seen 140 Miles Away. It was a fine clear night and as the conflagration grew, steadily fed at regular intervals by exploding tanks, the glare could be seen from great distances, one pilot seeing it from 140 miles away. Often in the course of such raids, pilots who arrive after the earlier attacks are helped in their task by fires already in progress. Last night, however, so many fires had been started that several pilots found the mass of fi n •>->■) o o ihnm 'mnrlo nrlo-nti-

flames below them made identi-

fication of the target more difficult. Attack on Junkers Works.

The vast Junkers factory at Dessau, which is less than GO miles from Berlin, and which was attacked by Royal Air Force planes on Tuesday night, is one of Germany’s main centres of aircraft production. The works were systematically bombed by relays of aircraft for more than an hour and were heavily damaged.

Numerous direct hits with heavy calibre bombs were scored on many parts of the target area, and the crew of one aircraft, whose bombs fell in a line across the main building, reported that one had hit and destroyed the main powerhouse. Others had severely damaged the airframe assembly sheds and a large sheetmetal shop. Experimental Shop Blows Up.

In the course of another attack, delivered from a height of only 1000 feet, one of the experimental shops was directly hit and blew up. Meanwhile, the subsidiary Junkers factory at Bernburg, where airframes for Junkers dive-bombers and troop transports are produced, was being attacked.

Salvoes of high-explosive and incendiary bombs were seen to burst and flare up within the target area. A line of bombs exploded across the aerodrome which adjoins the works, and parts of the buildings, struck by heavy bombs, went up in a shower of debris, which could be plainly seen by the crew of the low-flying bomber.

Berlin Alarm Explained

Bombs were also dropped during the night at other factories at Munchengladbaeh, where four direct hits were scored, at Frankfurt, at Kochem and on a blast furnace some 20 miles north-east of Cologne. Low clouds and haze prevented the observation of the results of attacks on a large oil refinery at Hanover.

Railway yards about 25 miles northwest of Osnabruck, where goods trains are assembled and despatched, were raided in the early hours of the morning.

Nazi quarters in Berlin state that an air alarm was caused by a number of scattered British aeroplanes, which were reported to have reached Potsdam, but which were

turned back by anti-aircraft fire. No bombs were dropped.

Such of the cable news jn this Issue as is so headed has appeared in “The Times” and is sent to this paper by special permission. It shoulti be understood that the opinions are not those of “The Times” unless expressly- stated to be so.