HAVOC AT KIEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24271, 12 May 1942, Page 3

HAVOC AT KIEL

ATTACKS ON COLOGNE MANY FACTORIES HIT (Reed. 6.50 p.m.) LONDON, May 10 A recent reconnaissance flight over 1 Kiel has produced evidence of old ' and new damage done to the docks 1 and shipyards, says the Air Ministry. 1 A report has reached England that in the middle of February a bomb 1 fell on a very important assembly 1 shed at the Marinewerft shipyard, ! which, like all the shipyards at Kiel, is building submarines. The clearer photographs show that the roof of this shed recently underwent extensive repairs. Liner Seen Blazing , The bombers that night took Kiel , completely by surprise. There were many casualties among; the night workers. Photographs taken during an attack on February 25 showed fire blazing around a liner in the inner construction, basin at Kiel. She was a big ship, about 500 ft. long, and believed to be serving as a depot ship for the crew of the Gneisenau, who slept in her every night. More recent photographs show this vessel completely burned out, with the superstructure gone. They also show damage by fire to the quayside. Bombs recently hit another great submarine-building base, the Krupp Germania yards. A direct hit in April destroyed two bays of the angle and plate-laying sheds, which were a large and important part of the shipyards. These sheds were damaged at the end of last year, and the repairs had just been finished when they were again hit. Factory Burned Out The damage done at Kiel includes two main shops in a wire cable factory. Both were gutted by fire. In recent attacks on the industrial areas of Cologne bombs hit the Hum-boldt-Deutz works on the eastern bank of the Rhine. Reconnaissance photographs have shown nine bays of a large multiple bay factory completely burned out, and five out of six smaller buildings damaged. Part of a large shop in another part of the works was gutted. These works produce mainly Diesel engines for submarines. It is almost as important in this respect as the ■ main factory at Augsburg, and any- ' thing which delays production in any - factory so vital to the German Navy must be counted as a victory for the ' Royal Air Force. No component takes 1 as long to make as a Diesel engine, and ' delays in their construction keep subt marines useless on the slips. Citroen Works Damaged The damage to the Humboldt works . may not be so serious as the damage done to the Augsburg factory, but it is . another effective counter-blow in the . Battle of the Atlantic, and, with the I damage at Kiel, such blows cannot fail { to have a cumulative effect. In Rolshoren, a suburb of Cologne, , two large shops at the Citroen motor works were gutted. A stick of bombs fell across a near by railway, and many I warehouses in the dock area of Cologne were damaged. On the east side of the , Rhine, warehouses were damaged by fire. Damage done at the Eifel Tor I goods yard includes the demolition of , a signal box. In the gas works of the Knrenfeld district of Cologne a shed 400 ft. long and another of 120 ft. were completely gutted. Raids On Dortmund , A large steel works engaged in constructional engineering was severely damaged. This consists of a large group i of buildings on the south side of Weis- > senburg Strasse in Dortmund. Two ad joining buildings, one 150 ft. by 210 ft. i and the other 440 ft. by 120 ft., were . extensively damaged, especially where . a heavy bomb landed over half the roof , of a neighbouring building and stripped . about 10,000 square yards of another . building which was being repaired. Fight thousand square feet of a further building was stripped off, and some factory buildings further to the southl west lost a considerable part of the roofs. Photographs of this factory were taken some time after the bombing occurred, but there was no sign of activity except repair and no smoke ' coming from any of the chimneys.