Unload 3000 Tons

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1944, Page 3

Unload 3000 Tons

Record For Single Raid On Germany

(Rec. 11.45 a.m.) LONDON. March 16. MORE THAN 1000 BRITISH BOMBERS LAST NIGHT DROPPED OVER 3000 TONS OF BOMBS ON GERMANY AND OCCUPIED COUNTRIES. THIS BOMB LOAD WAS THE HEAVIEST YET ANNOUNCED FOR A SINGLE NIGHT’S BOMBING, BEING 500 lONS 1 GREATER THAN THE PREVIOUS RECORD (BERLIN, ON MARCH 15.) The Press Association says that a communique for the first time mentions the use of “over 1000 heavy bombers.” It is true that Cologne, Essen and Bremen in 1942 experienced “1000 bomber raids,” but it is safe to assume that far from all the planes then used were of the heavy fourengined type at present in common use .by the Bomber Command. It is understood that attacks against Amiens and Munich last night were heavy, but well over 2000 tons of the 3000 total fell on Stuttgart. Among Stuttgart’s great factories are those oi Daimler and Benz, turning out aero engines and motor vehicles, also the Bosch electx'ical works, making apparatus for German planes. Stuttgart factories also build submarine engines. The attack was the seventh, major raid on Stuttgart. Today’s German communique claims that 66 bonjbers were shot down raiding Stuttgart. A Naples message reports that R.A.F. Wellingtons bombed Sofia railyards early today. Forty of our aircraft are missing from the great 1000 bomber raid. United States headquarters state that very strong forces of United States Eighth Air Force heavy bombers, escorted and supported by A.A.F., Dominion and Allied fighters, in great strength today attacked targets in southern Germany. Bombers which yesterday attacked targets at Brunswick made no claims as to enemy fighters destroyed. There was a little enemy air activity over parts of south-east England, including London area, last night. Bombs were dropped on scattered} points, causing a small number of casualties and some damage. Some 400 persons in an underground shelter narrowly escaped when two heavy bombs fell outside last night, says the Press Association. It is the third time this shelter has had a near miss. A boy running to the shelter was killed by shrapnel blown through the shelter entrance by blast which also damaged hundreds of houses.

Despite the daylight raid on Brunswick only a few hours before, the Luftwaffe put up as many aircraft as ever to defend Stuttgart from the 1000-homber raid. Fighters had to he strung out over a wide area of Germany and France, for while the main force ■ was making for Stuttgart, oilier aircraft wore bombing .Munich and Amiens. The Luftwaffe, however, was up in such strength that the bombers wore attacked both on the way to Stuttgart and over the target area. There was thick cloud three miles high when the bombers set out from Kngland. The cloud cleared a little as the force swept over the sea and there were breaks here and there over the Continent. .Stuttgart was covered by cloud about a mile high, just sufficiently thick to prevent the Germans using searchlights. Not many fighter flares were dropped, but visibility above the clouds was good and bright enough for the German pilots to pick out the* bombers. One pilot said “Stuttgart is difficult to hit because it is in hill country, and last night, tilings were made still harder by snow that covered the country. Strong fires were burning as we left the area. There was a big angry glow under the druids.” Another pilot said that instead of the usual fighter flares, the Germans were laying red flares along the path taken by the bombers.