STRONG ATTACK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24103, 23 October 1941, Page 10

STRONG ATTACK

BOMBS ON GERMANY

improvement in weather VIGOROUS DAYLIGHT SWEEPS LONDON. Oct- -1 Ports in north-west Germany were heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force in better weather on Monday night. Bremen was the main target, but Wilhelmshaven and Emden were also strongly attacked, anil there were several minor raids on other points. Nine British bombers are missing. For some time the weather has been against the Bomber Command, but 011 Monday night the run of bad luck ended and a strong force of two and four-engined bombers was sent to northwest Germany. It was more than seven times the size of the German foice operating against Britain during the night. The Coastal Command on Monday attacked a seaplane base and lactory in northern Denmark. Hits were scored on buildings and enemy aircralt were set on lire. One Coastal Command aeroplane is missing. British lighters destroyed two enemy aircraft off the south-west coast ot luigland—a Heinkel lit late on Monday afternoon and a Messerschmitt 110 oil Tuesday morning. Twelve enemy lighters were destrovsd during an ofiensive sweep by British lighters o\ei northern France on Tuesday morning.

A low-Hying patrol early in the morning attacked a number of targets, including an oil storage tank near Ostend. goods trains and oil tank waggons near the Abbeville area, and hangars and German troops on an aerodrome at Lc Touquet. Blenheim bombers attacked an enemy convoy escorted by anti-aircraft ships off the Dutch "coast during the afternoon. The results were difficult _to observe, but smoke was seen coming from two of the ships attacked. From these operations three bombers and nine fighters are missing, but the pilots of four of the fighters are safe. RAILWAY TARGETS AMERICAN PILOTS BUSY FRENCH LINE DISORGANISED LONDON, Oct. 21

Two pilots of the Eagle Squadron disorganised part of the railway system in Northern France on Tuesday morning, states the British official wireless. They flew over the French coast through a bank of fog and then suddenly spotted below them an important railway line running to Abbeville. One pilot turned to the left, and the other to the right. Then they flew along the track at tree-top height. Both found trains and attacked them. The first saw a goods train travelling east and fired at the engine. It was blotted out in clouds of steam. Before the pilot returned he attacked a second engine travelling in the opposite direction. He was unable to see the result of his fire. The other pilot followed the line nearly to Abbeville and then on to Etaples, where the fog suddenly lifted lust as he was approaching a railway station at which a goods train was drawing up. He attacked the engine at pointblank range and saw the boiler burst. In the station yard he saw six oil tanker waggons on a siding. Two exploded when he attacked them. He left them burning fiercely before going on up the line, where he saw another goods train on a siding. This he also attacked and saw his bullets hitting the engine, but he could not wait to see the final result. GERMAN ACTIVITY COASTAL TOWN BOMBED (Kecd, 6.43 p.m.) LONDON. Oct. 21 German bombers, which crossed the Straits of Dover at dusk, dropped highexplosive and incendiary bombs on a south-cast coast town." Damage was done to houses but no fatalities have been reported, although rescuers are searching for two persons who, it is feared, have been trapped. Later, in the north-east of England, bombs caused casualties in several places. Some people were killed. Night fighters last night were busy over enemy-occupied aerodromes in Holland and France, states the Air Ministry. They dropped bombs on hangars and runways and seriously interfered with the lighting arrangements there to guide returning German bombers home.

In one case incendiaries dropped by a Havoc caused fires which were still burning nearly an hour later 'when another Havoc passed near the same areodrome. This second machine also started a number of fires and caused damage to the runwavs.

Off the south-east c-oast of England the pilot of a Beau fighter managed to get, within long-distance range of a Junkers 87. He fired and saw some of his bullets hit the aircraft before it turned and dived steeply away into a cloud.