ALLIED BOMBING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25029, 20 October 1944, Page 5

ALLIED BOMBING

RAILWAYS IN GERMANY COLOGNE, KASSEL, BONN (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 10 The main weight of the Allied air effort yesterday was directed to smashing German railways the Ruhr with Aachen and the Netherlands battlefields. British and American heavy bombers attacked targets at Cologne, Kassel and Bonn. . . R.A.F. Lancasters made a major attack on Bonn, an advanced base on the left bank of .the Rhine, some 40 miles from Aachen. Bonn is believed at the moment to be full of troops. It is not only an imS>rtant link on the railway line to uren and Euskirchen, but also lies on a main lateral line of communicatimis running north and south close behind the front. It has several valuable factories, including plant for making light metal alloys for the aircraft industry. No fighters were seen, but strong ground defences put up a fairly heavy barrage. One fighter and one bomber are missing. All the bombing was carried out by instrument through cloud. Overcast adverse weather prevailed almost over the whole route. Some of the 600 Thunderbolts and Mustangs escorting the heavy bombers raiding Cologne and Kassel dropped to tree-top level in the Hanover, Brunswick and Kassel areas and shot up locomotives and motor transport. British Mosquito bombers attacked Hanover and Mannheim last night. They also bombed other objectives in Western Germany. ROYAL VISIT TO DOVER LONDON. Oct. 18 The King and Queen today visited Dover and Folkestone, says the British official wireless. Everywhere they had a big welcome and the, Mayor of Dover said to them after they had toured the big cave shelters: "Thank you for having come down to see us. It will hearten everyone in the town." The King and Queen were led by the Mayor through the long galleries where wire bunks, three tiers high, and now empty, were for so long the nightly resting place of Dover folk. MANCHESTER CASUALTIES (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 18 Manchester's air raid " casualties totalled 559 killed and 1778 injured. During the heavy raids on December 22 and 23, 1940, 372 of the total were killed and 1236 injured. The alert in the first of these two raids lasted nearly 12 hours. Fires were still burning when the Luftwaffe returned the next night. ENEMY LONG-RANGE GUN LONDON, Oct. 18 The censorship ban has been lifted on the news of a big German railway gun, described as the great-grandchild of the last war's Big Bertha, operating between Metz and Nancy, and lobbing 7001b shells over a wide area. The Associated Press correspondent with the American Third Army says the gun fires at a range of 30 miles, but ia inaccurate. It is useful for harassing fir© against big targets.