ATTACKS BY BOMBERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24969, 11 August 1944, Page 5

ATTACKS BY BOMBERS

OIL DEPOTS IN FRANCE RAILWAYS AND BRIDGES (Reed. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 10 The main target in France for the Royal Air Force last night was again German oil. Two more big dumps were hit by heavy bombers, one near Lille and the other south of Tours. R.A.F. Lancasters attacked about midnight. Royal Air Force Halifaxes, with fighter cover, made a heavy attack yesterday on a fuel depot in Manual Wood, near Valenciennes, 200 miles from the Caen front. Lancasters. also with fighter cover, attacked, submarine shelters and oil tanks at La Rochelle, on the west coast of France some 240 miles from Brest. Railway marshalling yards at Saarbnicken and targets in the Stuttgart regidn and elsewhere in Southern Germany were attacked by strong forces of United States Fortresses and Liberators. One of the escorting forces of Lightnings, Thunderbolts and Mustangs reported that 33 enemy planes were shot down. Thirty were destroyed on the ground, as well as 50 locomotives and 137 freight cars. Eighteen bombers and two fighters are missing. Six key bridges, all on important routes to Paris, were bombed by United States Marauders. Havocs struck at a German radio station in the ArgentanAlencon sector with good results. The bridge attacks were aimed at blocking the movement by the enemy of troops and supplies to Paris, either on their way to the present front or for the eventual defence of the city itself. The bombers, which were escorted by Lightnings and Thunderbolts, met no enemy fighters. No bombers are missing. PALESTINE TERRORISTS WIDESPREAD ORGANISATION (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 10 Police who have been carrying out investigations into the attack on Sir Harold Mac Michael, retiring High Commissioner in Palestine, discovered at the scene of tho ambush a quantity of hand grenades, two sub-machine-guns, a sack containing bombs capable of being exploded electrically from a dis and miscellaneous ammunition, explosives and equipment. / Several men were seen running, from the spot and they entered the Jewish settlement of Sivat Shaul. The police placed n cordon around the settlement, nut no one in it gave any useful information. All the information, according to a Colonial Office statement, points to the fact that the perpetrators of this and other recent outrages, and their supporters, who openly boasted of their intention to continue their activities, are more than a small body of terrorists and form part of a widespread organisation. NAZIS' HOPES FADE BELIEF THAT WAR IS LOST (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 Twenty German prisoners of war, two of whom are generals, believe that Germany has lost the war, said MajorGeneral John Dean,-chief of the United States military mission to Moscow. General Dean said he interviewed the prisoners just before his departure from Moscow. All said they had had letters from home describing the terrific damage done by Allied bombings. General Dean does not anticipate widespread vengeance in Germany by the invading Soviet forces. He a'dded that shuttle-bombing from Russia was paying good dividends.