DAMAGE IN REICH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 24 October 1940, Page 5

DAMAGE IN REICH

EFFECT OF REPEATED R.A.F. ATTACKS REPORTS FROM NEUTRAL SOURCES PRODUCTION CAPACITY DOWN 20 PER CENT [British Official Wireless] (Received 24th October. 10.23 a.m.) RUGBY, 23rd October. According to statements issued by the Air Ministry news service further information received from reliable sources shows that the R.A.F.’s bombing of military objectives in Germany has met with a large measure of success. The British air offensive has been directed mainly against the enemy’s supply of war material and well-informed foreign industrialists says that about 20 per cent of the total production capacits of Germany has been attested through the repeated and determined attacks of the R.A.F. In Neuhorf and Hamburg for in-! stance large oil refineries have been forced to close as a result of the constant bombing and near Hamburg docks three silos containing about 10,000 tons of wheat were completely ; destroyed. The docks are also known to have been badly damaged as well as many important dockside buildings. ! Evidence has come to hand, too, of 1 the wreckage of a gas holder at Gelsenkirchen. one of the largest of its kind in Europe. In Berlin, reports from neutral observers state, a large j factory making precision machinery i for the fighting services has been brought to a temporary standstill, ! while elsewhere in the city another faetpry containing machinery of vital importance has also suffered severe damage from direct hits. In the course of a recent raid on Berlin fires were started in several of the target areas and, in the words of another informer, much damage was done to railway property. The service of the rapid transit system was also affected and several of its sections had to be temporarily suspended.