STUTTGART RAID

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24956, 27 July 1944, Page 6

STUTTGART RAID

SECOND HEAVY ATTACK LINZ TARGET BOMBED AIRCRAFT FROM ITALY By Tflegrnph—Press Association—Copyright. (Reed. P. 10 p.m.) LONDON, July 26 Stuttgart was again tho main objective for Koynl Air Force bombers ■which were over Germany last night in great strength. The previous night heavy bombers had dropped 2000 tons of bombs on the city. The bombers last night had to struggle through electrical storms over the Continent and battle their ■way through considerable numbers of fighters. The attack "was concentrated into about 15 minutes and in that time largo fires took hold and were spreading. Factory to Battlefront Tho Air Ministry says that with the ( enemy facing a shortage of weapons it is likely that tho equipment made in Stuttgart goes almost directly from tho factory to tho battlcfront. It adds • , that there have been instances recently ■when tho strategic bombing of German • industries has had a tactical effect on t : the battlcfront. A force of Mosquitoes bombed Berlin _• last night and a strong force of Halii faxes bombed a synthetic oil plant in " tho Ruhr. The output of tho plant attacked represents a very considerable • ' part of the whole German production. Thirteen of our bombers are missing from tlio night's operations. Before dusk last night about 100 Lancaster heavy bombers attacked the -- Luftwalfo equipment depot at St, Cyr, ]2 miles from Paris. First reports showthat the attack was well concentrated, v. One bomb-aimer said conditions were : ideal for daylight bombing and ho saw a great weight of explosives hit the target in about fivo minutes. Tho Lancaster had fighter cover. One bomber was lost. First Bombing at Linz The uncompleted Hermann Goering tank works at Linz, in Austria, which were designed to produco 1,000,000 tons ' ; of iron and steel a year and to manufacture tanks and armoured cars, were bombed for the first tirrio yesterday by Italy-based Liberators and living Fortresses, escorted by fighters. Good results were reported. Other Liberators attacked tho railway yards at Villach, in Austria, near tho Italian-Yugoslav frontier, with good results. In these operations from Italy 65 enemy planes wero destroyed. Twentysix Allied aircraft were lost. The Germans reported Allied bomber formations from Italy over Lower ■ Austria again today.

SURPLUS STORES ' ' DISPOSAL AFTER WAR CONTROL OF SALE AND PRICE (Reed. 8.10 p.m.) LONDON, July 25 In a statement in the House of Commons on the post-war disposal of . surplus Government stores, Dr H. Dal- ' ton, President of the Board of Trade, fiaid Government departments and local authorities would have the first oppor- , tunitv of acquiring such stocks ofrraw materials, and afterward they would be distributed through normal channels to the general public. The needs of 1 liberated Europe would also be conThere would be a firm control over price and profit margins. Speaking of the future of huge Government factories, the Minister said it had been decided that there should be a Controlled allocation of factories to the people who applied for them, rather than that they should bo sold merely to the highest bidder. The Ministry of Production should be retained after the war and changed into a Ministry of Economic Development for the allocation and utilisation of these assets and to_ seo that they were sold or disposed of in the best interests of the country. The Government looked 011 these factories as forming an essential part of the restoration of peacetime industry in Britain. RUBBER FOR AMERICA [INDEPENDENT OF FAR EAST :• (Reed. 0.10 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 20 "America is now independent of rubber from tho Far East," said Colonel Bradley Dewey, United States Rubber Director. Colonel Dewey's office today • becaine the first wartime agency voluntarily to surrender its power, because the task for which it was established has been accomplished. Colonel Dewey explained that the annual synthetic rubber production was 836,000 long tons, compared with the pre-war crude rubber imports of 600,000 tons.

. Commenting on the post-war situation, he expressed, the opinion that the synthetic rubber industrv would stand on its own feet. It would not need ". j tariff protection from competition with natural rubber, he added, because synthetic rubber would sell at 14 to'l6 cents a lb in the world's markets, and .... natural rubber producers would have to tie their prices to the synthetic level, instead of vice versa.

WORLD OIL RESOURCES

WASHINGTON DISCUSSIONS J • '(Rml. 8.10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 25 Discussions on the post-war petroleum position started _ today between tho British and American delegations on the basis of tho experts' memorandum drawn up last spring. An agreement is expected to be completed next week, and this will later be supplanted by a multilateral agreement embracing Russia, Venezuela, and other oil producing countries. The basic plan does not contemplate a division of mar- • kets, but an orderly development of oil resources. JAPANESE PROGRESS CAMPAIGN IN CHINA (Reed. 8.10 p.m.) CHUNGKING. July 26 With the battle for Hengyang, in South China, near a climax, the Japaneso have compressed their ring about the bf'.siogofl city and repelled tho Chinese relief columns. fall will probably presage a full-scale offensive to the south to close tho 170-mile gap in tho Canton-Hankow railway, an unbroken Japanese span of IdOO miles from north to 6outh. 4 Chinese communique said the Lhine.se had developed a successful attack against the Japanese east of Lilmg, 75 miles north-east of Hengyang, occupying several strougpoints. BURMA ROAD CAMPAIGN (Heed. 5.35 p.m.) CHUNGKING, July 25 The Chinese have attacked Japanese positions dominating the Burma Road south-west ol Sungshan, and occupied half the? objective, says a Chinese comirivinlll!i o. Tho Japanese counter-at- • tacked, and heavy fighting is continuing. AUSTRALIAN CASUALTIES CANBERRA, July 20 Australian Navy, Army and Air Force . casualties to March 3t total 8l'"80' ' , They consist of:—Army: Killed 9,338prisoners,2B,os2; wounded, 30,837. Air , *o.rce: Killed, 4670; missing, 18-15- ' prisoners .77 f; wounded, 2175. Navy: . -•Killed, 1 >1; inwsing, 532; prisoners, 349; wounded, 2,J0. 4 The total of service enlistments to the . end of April was 891.000.