WAR BROUGHT TO BERLIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23772, 27 September 1940, Page 7

WAR BROUGHT TO BERLIN

THIRD SUCCESSIVE NIGHT RAID

longest yet experienced

ONSLAUGHT' ON MILITARY OBJECTIVES By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received September 27, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 26 For the third night in succession, bombers of the Royal Air Force heavily attacked. Berlin last night. The raid was the longest that the German capital has yet experienced and it was not until four o'clock this morning (Thursday) that Berlin citizens were able to emerge from their shelters after an alarm lasting five hours. An Air Ministry communique this morning states that strong forces of British bombers attacked military objectives in Berlin, ■while other raids were directed at the important naval base of Kiel and invasion bases in enemy-occupied territory. The Germans admit that British bombers were over the capital and that many bombs were dropped, causing a number of casualties.

Military objectives in the heart of Berlin had been singled out and attacked on Tuesday night, when Royal Air Force heavy bombers carried the war into the German capital in a raicl lasting two hours; and a half.

Intense Barrage Evaded The raid on Tuesday night began shortly after 10.30 p.m., says an. Air Ministry bulletin, when the first attacker, evading the intense barrage of the city's ground defences, located and bombed the great Siemens and Halse factories, which produce a large proportion of the electrical equipment used by the German armed forces. Great fires were seen to break out in the target area afte:r the bombing. Berlin s electric-power transformer and switching station at Friederichsfelde, supplying most of the city's industrial current, was attacked at 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Sticks of high-explosive bombs were seen to burst across the plant. A blast furnace in a south-east suburb was struck, causing large fires. Two sticks of bombs were dropped across a canal bridge two miles south-west of Berlin s main airport of Templehof. Finkenheers electric-power station, near Frankfurt-on-Oder, more than 300 miles from Germany's western frontier, was located half an hour before midnight and was twice attacked with sticks of high-explosive bombs, which were seen to burst in and around the target. The main railway line near Magdeburg and the rail depot and distributing centre at Hamm were also attacked, and explosions on main sidings and sheds at Hamm were followed by a line of fires.

Goods yards at Brussels were also attacked. Hanover aerodrome was bombed from a high level, and to the north of Emden, where night flying by the enemy was in progress, a British raider came down to 2000 ft. to drop his bombs on a hangar and runway. A flare revealed the wreckage of a hangar destroyed in a previous attack.

Hammering of Invasion Ports While the long-distance raids on Germany were in progress, other strong forces of Royal Air Force bombers, operating at short range, kept up their nightly hammering of the enemy's invasion ports from Hamburg to Le Havre. Fires were started at Hamburg docks. Bombs straddled the shipping bases at Cherbourg and at the Dutch port of Delfzijl. Extensive damage was caused to shipping, barges and port facilities: at Ostend, Calais and Boulogne, while aircraft of the Coastal Command effectively raided Brest and Cherbourg. Hie German long-range gun positions at Cap Gris-Nez were also attacked shortly before dawn on Wednesday and numbers of hits were registered on new emplacements under construction. In. all these operations only two British aircraft: were lost.