HEAVY BLOWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23748, 30 August 1940, Page 10

HEAVY BLOWS

ROYAL AIR FORCE , GERMAN INDUSTRY 'AIRCRAFT AND FUEL OIL DISLOCATION' CAUSED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright British Wireless LONDON. August 28 The dislocation of industrial life ' in Germany and damage to industrial plants, and, in particular, to German . synthetic oil works, by repeated Royal Air Force attacks, is commented upon to-daj r in official circles in London. Since the beginning of the war, at least 170 attacks have been made by the Royal Air Force against various . oil targets in Germany, and these attacks, it is felt, must unquestionably have^ further considerably increased Germany's difficulties as regards oil Kupplies. Already her wartime requirements of oil have far exceeded both what she herself has produced and what she has been able to import from European countries. Heavy Needs to be Met Excluding the Soviet Union, European production of all kinds has amounted in the past to 11,280,000 tons annually, but, even in peacetime Greater Germany was consuming 20,000,000 tons, and her wartime requirements must have considerably raised this figure. German synthetic oil plants are distributed between Western Germany, from which usually comes 40 per cent of her synthetic oil .production, Central Germany, which produces 50 per cent, and Eastern Germany, producing 10 per cent. |' Naturally, Royal Air Force activity has, so' far, been directed mainly against Western Germany, where not only 40 per cent of the German synthetic oil supplies are locate,d, but also where 2,500,000 tons out of a total capacity of the German oil refineries of •3,000,000 tons are to be found. Vulnerable to Air Attack A large percentage of the German oil storing capacity is also located at these refineries, which are highly vulnerable to air attack and which, indeed, have been repeatedly successfully attacked. With jhe coming of longer nights, Royal Air Force raiders have been further afield, and raids have been made against oil plants in Central Germany, 'where one-half of Germany's total synthetic oil is produced or located. . One pf the principal oil plants in Germany, that at Leuna, Central Germany, lias been the object of success-, ful Royal Air Force attacks, one as recently as Monday "night: Turning to industrial targets in .Germany . other than oil, it is pointed out that,"' although the bulk of the German aircraft production is located fairly far afield, the assemblage is carried Oil largely in Western Germany, and it is believed that Germany's power . to replace aircraft losses suffered in raids over Britain has already been appreciably'reduced by bombing attacks on these plants and others engaged in the production of aircraft materials. '' More Factori.es Attacked Longer nights have enabled the Royal Air Force to follow up these preliminary attacks with heavier and even more damaging raids on larger works, which are situated further into the interior, such as Dessau and Augsburg. The Messerschmitt factory at Augsburg ■was raided last night. German transport has undoubtedly severely suffered from Royal Air Force raids, which have caused considerable damage to docks at Hamburg and Bremen/ and must seriously hamper Germany's sea-borne transport. Airships now largely have to use ports further ■ east, and tho destruction caused at ports necessitates further recourse to the already over-strained German railway system. Still further demands lrnve had to be made on the railways owing to the destruction of the vitally important aqueduct the Dortmund-Ems Canal, which has formed the chief transport link between the Rhineland and northwest arid central Germany. . Strain on German Industry Goods to the equivalent of 400 trainloads, which used to daily cross the aqueduct in barges, now have to be transported by rail, but the railway system itself has also been damaged. The great marshalling yards at Hamm have'been attacked almost nightly for many weeks. . In particular, heavy industries m the Ruhr'have been affected by the tremendous strain put on them by the German railway system. . , • The constant supply of materials is essential for their continuation. So frequent have been the' Royal Air Force raids on industries in the Ruhr that a large percentage of the inhabitants have been evacuated west into 1' ranee. BERLIN ALARM THREE HOURS' RAID REPORT OF CASUALTIES NAZIS ADMIT BOMBING LONDON. August 20 A Berlin message says the air raid alarm was sounded at 24 minutes after midnight. Searchlights immediately swept the sky and anti-aircraft fire bursts were seen to tho north-west of the city. .. According to a later message the "all clear" was sounded in Berlin at 3.18 a.m. : , the raid having lasted nearly three hours. The German news agency stated this morning that 10 people were killed and 30 injured in the raid. Incendiary and high-explosive bombs were dropped. The Berlin radio stated that seven British aeroplanes dropped 100 incendiarv bombs on Berlin on Sunday night, destroying a house near the outskirts. BOMBING IN EIRE H., ■ \ VERDICT AT INQUEST LONDON, August 28 The coroner at Wexford, in Eire, returned a verdict that three women at the Campile creamery factory were killed by a bomb dropped from a Gerihan aeroplane.