HAMBURG HAMMERED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 18 November 1940, Page 5

HAMBURG HAMMERED

CONCENTRATED ATTACKS BY R.A.F. BOMBERS Prolonged Raids Against Many Targets DEVASTATION AT LE HAVRE (Press Association and British Official Wireless) (Received 18th November, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, 1 7th November. Details of last night’s R.A.F. offensive against Germany show that Hamburg, visited for the second night in succession, was j subjected to a concentrated attack lasting several hours on all its! great and various industries, which range from shipbuilding to the manufacture of synthetic, but presumably edible fats. At intervals throughout the night powerful forces of bombers flew over the city and suburbs. The success varied with the changing weather of the night, but many pilots were fortunate enough to find their targets when bombing conditions were perfect. An Air Ministry communique states: “Squadrons of the Bomber Command last night renewed their attack against Hamburg. Many tons of bombs were dropped in the course of prolonged and extensive operations against many objectives, which included the Central railway yards, important oil refineries, the Altona electricity works and industrial targets in the Billwarder and Moorfleth districts. One force of aircraft concentrated on the great Blohm and Voss shipyards. “Docks at Antwerp were also bombed. Coastal Command aircraft made a series of attacks on aerodromes in enemy occupation. •Fires and explosions were caused. Dunkirk was also attacked. In daylight yesterday raids were carried out by the Bomber Command on oil refinery plants at Cologne and Bremen and on the DortmundEms Canal. From all these operations three of our aircraft have not returned.

The French newspaper “L’Action Francaise” says that Royal Air Force attacks on Le Havre have caused a re-evacuation of the city. Bombers last night directly hit an ammunition train, and the resultant explosion destroyed 500 houses. The newspaper adds that oil refineries and tanks have been wiped out, all ferries between Le Havre and Rouen have been sunk, and shipyards and factories have been forced to close down.

BIG FIRES STARTED Squadrons attacking the Blohm and Voss shipbuilding yards, which are the best known of any such yards lining the banks of the Elbe, reached Hamburg just before midnight after flying through much cloud. As they came over the target pilots suddenly found themselves in rbight moonlight. Visibility steadily increased and clouds were left behind. High-explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped, and bursts were seen in many parts of the target area, while the explosions which followed were accompanied by great billowing red flames. Close to the river bank there was another fire and a warehouse was seen to be well alight. The Blohm and Voss yards and also a neighbouring aircraft factory, where direct hits were scored, were scenes of large fires.

Another force of heavy bombers found gaps in the cloud immediately over great riverside railway goods-yards in the Billwarde district, and dropping many high-explosive and over 1000 incendiary bombs. The gaps in the clouds closed as the attacks ended and made it impossible to observe the full result, but enough was seen to make certain that considerable damage was done. DESTRUCTIVE TOUR Coastal Command bombers yesterday made an effective destructive tour of enemy aerodromes in the Rouen, Abbeville, Arras and Cambrai areas. The crews of the attacking Hudson and Beauforts, despite bad weather, were able to get excellent results. Four audacious dive attacks, in the course of which the pilot went down within 300 feet of the ground, were made by one Beaufort on an aerodrome in the Cambrai sector at dusk. In the first sweep he planted incendiary bombs which ignited buildings, and in the following attacks “opened up” the targets with high-explosive bombs. The flames spread fast and when the aircraft left were leaping nearly 100 feet up. One Hudson, which distributed high explosives along the boundary of another Cambrai landing ground, produced six explosions and fierce fires.

Aircraft which went to Abbeville all reported similar successes. As a result of one explosion there the tail-gunner of a Hudson was thrown from his feet and the interior of the aircraft floodlit by successive flashes from the wrecked targets. Another Hudson bombed.objectives across 1800 yards of an aerodrome. The crew had the satisfaction of seeing extensive fires sweeping inwards from each end of the bombed area. PREVIOUS NIGHT'S RAIDS HAMBURG PRINCIPAL TARGET LONDON, 16th November. A communique by the British Air Ministry describes in detail successful extensive operations undertaken yesterday and last night by the Coastal and Bomber Commands, from which only two aircraft have not returned. Hamburg provided the most important targets of the night from very satisfactory operations against which all the aircraft engaged returned safely.

The communique says: “Large-scale operations were carried out last night by a squadron of the R.A.F. Bomber Command against railway communica- | tions, shipyards, docks and public utility services in Hamburg. In the docks and railway areas many explosions and fires were caused. One large building after being bombed was seen to blow up and is believed to have been destroyed completely. “The Rhenania Ossag oil refinery and Ihe Blohm and Voss shipbuilding yards were the centres of heavy attacks, as a result of which many fires were observed. Away from the docks and on the north side of the city, gasworks were bombed with excellent results, and a successful attack was made against an electrical power station in the Altona district as well as against other objectives in the city. Many fires resulted. “Other aircraft raided the Kiel dockyard and ? Iso Ostend and Calais. In the course of the operations one of our bombers was shown down by an intercepting Messerschmitt 109. “Aircraft of the Coastal Command were active yesterday during the day and night, and made many attacks, ranging from Norway to occupied France. Military stores and buildings in Rennes were successfully attacked and also several aerodromes. A Heinkel floatplane on patrol was destroyed in combat by a Coastal Command plane.” HAMBURG SERVICES PLASTERED The raid on Hamburg began soon after nightfall and continued till 5.30 a.m. In the words of the Air Ministry news service, the second largest city of Germany had one of its longest and heaviest air bombardments. The British raids on Hamburg hitherto were almost exclusively confined to the docks aiea, but last night’s objectives were

more widespread. The first attack began shortly before 7 p.m. in the light of a full moon; visibility was excellent and a slight haze which lay over the city did not conceal the great riverside railway sorting yards in the Billwarder and Moorfleth districts, which were repeatedly bombed by relays for nearly two hours. Attacking singly from different directions and varying heights, the raiders planted sticks of high-explosive bombs, including a number of the heaviest calibre, in all parts of the great railway yards and across a nearby dock entrance. Warehouses and sheds were hit, and one building appeared to blow up. One raider reported a terrific explosion midway through the attack, and of many fires which were set raging one great blaze could be seen from 49 miles away. The pilot of one aircraft saw one of his heaviest bombs score a direct hit on a long building in the railway yards. At 9 p.m., within three minutes of the departure of the last of this raiding force, the first aircraft of a second wave of attackers were over Hamburg, and the city was again echoing the sound of explosions as bombs were rained down on the great Rhenania Ossag mineral oil refinery at Grasbrook. For the next 50 minutes the oil plant was repeatedly attacked with high-explosive and incendiary bombs. Fires quickly broke out and explosions lit up the refinery buildings, and as the raid reached its climax fresh fires merged with those already burning, to form one great blaze from which the flame and smoke rose high in the sky. Two sticks of bombs which overshot the refinery were seen to burst on a nearby railway station and buildings on the north bank of the river.

FIRES IN SHIPYARDS While this attack was in progress another strong force was concentrating in the Blohm-Voss shipyards, where naval vessels were known to be under construction. Bombs were seen to strike the centre of the targets and also burst on an adjacent railway track. One pilot halfway through the attack counted 12 separate explosions on the target caused by bombs from another aircraft, and great fires which started were still burning furiously when the raiders left.

For a few hours the city was left in peace, and then, shortly after 3 a.m., when the night’s alarm seemed at an end, the second phase of the attack began and the bombing continued with unabated vigour for a further two and a half hours. In perfect visibility the important electric power station at Altona was located and heavily attacked out of the cloudless sky. Heavycalibre bombs were seen to burst on and round the power station buildings, and fires quickly followed. In another part of the city the Barbeck gasworks were subjected to 50 minutes’ attack, during which sticks of high-explosives repeatedly fell across the tarrget. One huge fire was seen to break out three minutes after a bomb of the heaviest calibre struck the gasworks, and at 5.20 a.m., as the last aircraft left the battered target, the blaze was still spreading.

Hamburg’s powerful ground defences were in action constantly throughout the night and a heavy barrage of lire from light and heavy-calibre guns greeted each sortie but could not prevent the raiders from pressing home their attacks. Fighter opposition was also encountered and a Mesesrschmitt 109 was shot down seven miles east of Bremerhaven.

A supplementary Air Ministry bulletin says that aerodromes were attacked at Stavanger. Doullens, Cambrai and St. Malo. Swordfish bombers of the Fleet Air Arm took part in the raids along with Hudsons, Blenheims and Beauforts. At Stavanger large fires were started probab’y among aircraft and explosions were observed among the flames. Substantial results were obtained on the French aerodromes, where buildings were hit and set on fire and damage was caused to landing grounds. At Rennes an arsenal was left blazing