R.A.F. Braves Bad Weather To Resume Attack

Northern Advocate, 15 November 1940, Page 5

R.A.F. Braves Bad Weather To Resume Attack

(Received 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, November 14.

An Air Ministry communique states that the Bomber Command last night carried out widespread operations in Germany in face of extremely adverse weather conditions. In attacks over Berlin the Schlesischer railway station, the Grunewald goods yard and objectives in the centre of the city were heavily bombed. A number of fires were started.

Other places attacked were the electrical power station at Cologne, inland docks at Duisburg and Ruhr<?rt, industrial targets at Dortmund and Dusseldorf, and a battery of coke ovens at Lintfort.

Found Their Mark

Bursts were observed on all these targets. Oil plants at Gelsenkirchen, Hanover and Leuna were also heavily attacked. Large fires and explosions were caused. Other aircraft attacked aerodromes at Haamsten, Kreuzbuck, north of Berlin, and Lubeck, and a seaplane base at Norderney. Docks at Calais and Wilhelmshaven were also bombed. Two of our aircraft are missing.

Berlin Heavily Assaulted.

British bombers reached Berlin soon after 8 p.m. last night, and for some 20 minutes subjected objectives in the centre of the city, as well .as the Schlesischer station and junction in the Potsdam area, to swift assaults. The Grunewald sorting yards were also attacked, and six large fires started. Bad weather hindered the bombaimers, as well as handicapping the defence, and both relied on occasional clear patches in the heavily overcast sky. Fires and Explosions. No raiding aircraft were hit, and they managed to reach their targets, as fires and explosions testified. Elsewhere over Germany, weather conditions were even worse, the -attacking forces having encountered fog, rain, snow and violent electrical storms. Oil Plant Suffers. A heavy attack, however, was delivered on the Farben oil plant, at Leuna, which was subjected to ,a series of attacks at intervals for over two hours.

Great fires, burning with red flame and emitting clouds of black smoke, were started.

Four other oil refineries, one at Gologne, one at Hanover, and two at Gelsenkirchen, were also successfully attacked.

Many other secondary targets, such as docks, munition works, and railways, .were also bombed by other British aircraft. >