NUREMBERG RAID

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24675, 30 August 1943, Page 3

NUREMBERG RAID

CITY AN INFERNO "VIRTUALLY WIPED OUT" SWARMS- OF FIGHTERS (Reed. 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 29 A very heavy attack on Nuremberg, important railway and industrial centre in South Germany, was made by British bombers on Friday night. Mosquitoes bombed objectives in the Ruhr. Thirty-three bombers are missing. It is estimated that more than 1500 tons of high explosives and tens of thousands of incendiaries were dropped on Nuremberg within 45 minutes. According to a Sunday Times correspondent the city was virtually wiped out. Fighters And Searchlights Returning crows reported' great columns of smoke with red cores rising 15,00© to 20,000 foot. They could he seen 150 miles away. The ground defences were overwhelmed and the city was an inferno within a few minutes of the beginning of the attack. German fighters were up in great strength. The enemy used the same tactics as in the defence of Berlin —almost entirely night fighters and searchlights. There was not a great deal of flak over Nuremberg itself, but there were more fighters and searchlights than experienced pilots had seen for some time. The struggle between the bombers and enemy fighters went on all along the route and continued when our aircraft were on the way home. As the air crews approached heavily defended towns in Southern Germany, search lights were switched on and scores of fighters rose to the attack. "Milling Around Like Bees" A great force of fighters awaited the bombers over the target. One pilot described the fighters as milling around like bees. A concentration of searchlights tried to pick the bombers up. Some crews saw as many as ten fighters at a time—a largo number to see at night.

A German communique says the raid caused casualties and heavy devastation in residential quarters. Royal Air Force Typhoons and Mustangs swept over Northern France and Belgium in daylight yesterday bombing rail and canal traffic. They hit barges, tugs, locomotives, goods trains and gunposts and shot down two of the enemy lighters which tried to stop them. All but one of the planes got back. GREAT TOLL TAKEN HAMBURG AND BERLIN (Heed. 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 29 According to German and neutral reports, 200,000 persons have been killed in the raids on Hamburg, says the New York Times correspondent in Ankara. Of this number 30,000 died in air raid shelters. The raid on Berlin last Monday is described by neutral so-urces as indescribably terrific. They say that if raids like this are continued it will be impossible to stand up against them. The Hotel Adlon district of the city was levelled and vast fires were still raging late on Tuesday. The Reich Chancellery is reported to have been, hit dining the raid, says Renter's Stockholm correspondent.

NAZI SCIENTISTS KILLED IN AIR RAID LONDON, Aug. 28 Many of Germany's outstanding scientists and scores of highly-skilled technicians are believed to have been killed in the R.A.F. raid on Peenemunde on August 17, when 41 bombers were reported missing. The aviation writer of the Daily Mail says the scientists and technicians working at Peenemunde were sinister, dangerous and personal foes of every Allied airman. They are irreplaceable and the plans for the raid had these "backroom boys" very much in mind. The first hint of the success of the raid was given by the Berlin radio in an announcement next day that General Chamiergli Sezenski, inventor of many of Germany's secret weapons, had met with "a fatal accident." Evidence to support the belief that many of his colleagues suffered a similar fate on the night of the raid has been provided by pictures of the bomb damage at Peenemunde. BRITISH COMPLAINTS DISCUSSIONS WITH FRANCO LONDON, Aug. 28 Many rumours have arisen since Sir Samuel Hoare's interview with .General Franco last week, some from Spanish sources even suggesting that it was restricted to British assurances of various kinds to the Spanish Government. In actual fact, says the diplomatic correspondent of the Times, Sir Samuel Hoarc again brought forward complaints which the British Government had been forced to make against the Spanish Government on the ground of discrimination against the Allies. The complaints dealt with activities not simply in Spain, but in Spanish Morocco and Tangier. There has lately been improvement in the general situation, but several grievances are outstanding with regard to incidents and tendencies which conflict with the declared policy of equal treatment among the belligerents, Sir Samuel Hoare left several detailed memoranda with General Franco. NEW AVIATION FUEL PRODUCTION IN AMERICA (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 A new aviation fuel, now in production in quantity in the United States, may shorten the war by giving the Allies aerial superiority, said the president of the American institute of Chemists, Dr. Gustav Egloff. Two Russian chemists in America had developed the new fuel, which was called triptane. It would enable planes to fly higher and taster and to carry heavier armour and greater bomb loads. Triptane contained so much power that its maximum use mado present plane engines obsolete", said Dr. Egloff, who added that the only change necessary was to make engine cylinders smaller and heavier.

Although extremely high-powered a viation fuel had previously been produced and experimented with, this is the first indication that it is now being produced in quantity. Present-day fuel is mainly 100 octane or 87 octane, but new fuels reaching 150 octane have been made. This fuel has had too high a compression ratio for present engines ami has previously proved highly inllammablo and unstable. Alloys in present-day engines have not been hard enough to stand the use of the new fuel. Dr. Gustav Egloit lias been director of research for Universal Oil Products, Chicago, since 1917, and is the bolder of 250 patents for processing petroleum oil, coal, shale oil and chemical derivatives of hydro-carbons. Me has visited various capitals in Europe and the Ear East as delegate to technical conferences. has been granted awards by a number ul societies and has written works dealing with oil production.