COLOGNE DAMAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24250, 16 April 1942, Page 7

COLOGNE DAMAGE

RAILWAY STATION TARGET RHINE WORKS HAMMERED (Reed. 5.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 14 A further survey of the damage done at Cologne, the third largest city in Germany and an important railway and industrial centre, emphasises the serious dislocation of the municipal and industrial life of the city, says the British official wireless. It is no"W known that bombs fell at the entrance hall of the main railway station and booking offices. The luggage registration department and the station post office were either destroyed or severely damaged. Platforms and railway tracks were also hit and there is little doubt that passenger train services must have been disorganised for several days. Another railway target extensively damaged is the Koln-Nippes railway workshops, which probably were turning out waggons and other rolling stock. He damage here was considerable. One large block of sheds, comprising about one-third of the entire plant, has been hit several times, and other shops and sheds covering an area of about IS,OOO square yards have either been severely damaged or gutted. It is certain the output of these workshops must be greatly reduced. Sheds in the Deutz marshalling yard have been burned out, and bombs which hit the tracks at the east end of the yard must have held up much traffic. On the right bank of the Rhine several important factories, including the large Kalk and Deutz plants of Humboldt Dentz, which make engines for aircraft and submarines, have been hit. Damage has also been done to docks, installations and warehouses.

SPY RING IN BRAZIL NOTED ITALIANS ARRESTED NEW YORK, April 14 A United Press message from Sao Paulo, Brazil, states that alleged members of an Italian spy ring, lernando Martini, described as Brazil's Mussolini, and Oswaldo Scogna and Miglio Homezi, close friends of Mussolini, were arrested to-day. Others arrested were the multi-millionaire Oswaldo Rizzo and Captain Franco Chechini. The police said they found compromising documents in Rizzo's possession showing that he financed the spy ring's operations.

DESERT SKIRMISHES FIGHTING PATROLS ACTIVE LONDON, April 14 The Middle East war communique states: "Our columns and fighting patrols were active yesterday engaging enemy artillery and tanks, especially in the northern sector. Visibility ivas still not good, owing to the dust, and the results were difficult to observe. Direct hits by our artillery were claimed on a column of enemy armoured-cars and artillery in the Temrad area." The R.A.F. Middle East communique states that during Sunday night enemy camps, motor transport and gun positions in the Tmimi area and harbour installations at Benghazi were attacked by our aircraft, and our fighters' were active over the forward area in Cvrenaica throughout yesterday. One jMesserschmitt 109 was shot down and other enemy aircraft were damaged.

CIVILIAN DEMANDS 4 CURTAILMENT TOO SLOW WASHINGTON, April 14 A former war production official, Mr. Robert Guthrie, told the Senate Investigation Committee to-day that the reluctance of War Production Board officials to curtail civilian production had confronted the nation with a wool shortage similar to that of rubber. Mr. Guthrie resigned on March 14 as director of the textiles branch because he disagreed with other officials regarding the speed of conversion of civilian industry to war production. The War Production Board has ordered consumption of shellac to be reduced 70 per cent, involving a similar reduction in gramophone records and radio transcriptions. President Roosevelt has proclaimed the week beginning on May 3 as National Employment Week, and has called on employers to open their doors to older workers as a means of speeding war production and also to give attention to the necessity of employing women. —————— NEW INCENDIARY BOMB LONDON, April 14 The Royal Air Force is dropping a new type of fir« bomb over Germany which causes considerable damage and trouble to the Germans, says the correspondent of the Swedish newspaper Stockholm's Tidningens in Berlin. He states that ii is many times more effective than the old type. Tt is cubical, contains phosphorus and is more difficult to extinguish than the ordinary incendiary. The new bombs are either dropped simultaneously with explosives or rastened to small balloons.