MANY DIRECT HITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24325, 15 June 1940, Page 9

MANY DIRECT HITS

AIR RAIDS IN FRANCE BRITISH SQUADRONS THE ENEMY HARASSED (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, June 13. An Air Ministry communique states: “ Intensive bombing attrcks by the Royal Air Force on enemy concentrations in the areas east of Rouen were continued throughout yesterday. Troop concentrations and columns of armoured lighting vehicles were heavily bombed. In the course of these operations three enemy bombers were shot down. Three of our aircraft are missing. During the night heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force carried out a series of attacks on the enemy’s lines of communication ranging from the coast to the forest of the Ardennes Damage was done to railway lines snd road junctions. Ammunition dumps were blown up and fires started

Enemy aerodromes were also attacked, hangars being destroyed and runways dameged. All our aircraft returned. “In an attack on Boulogne Haibour one enemy motor torpedo boat was sunk and two others damaged. Damage was also done to the jetty, and a lorry park nearby was heavily machine-gunped. “ Over the battle zone our fighters shot down seven enemy aircraft yesterday. None of our fighters is missing.” Operations in Seine Valley Another section in the Seine Valley saw a convoy of armoured fighting vehicles near crossroads, protected by light .and heavy guns. Direct hits with high explosives were m:de on four oi the protecting guns, on two tanks, and on at least six lorries. The principal targets attacked during the night included marshalling yards, railway lines, troop and ammunition trains, and mechanised units, At one point an ammunition train was destroyed. One bomb, falling directly on part of the train, caused such a terrific explosion that, more than half a mile above, the windscreen of an aircraft was blown out. Other bombs wrecked the railway track for hundreds of yards. At Soissons. a centre of communication of great importance to the Germans, extensive damage was done to a railway junction. Great stretches of woodland to the south-east of Hirson, in which German troops and supply columns had sought concealment, were set alight, the flames in some instances blocking roads. Behind the right wing of the enemy’s adyance, traffic was disorganised by the destruction of vital roads and railways. At the mouth of the Scheldt attacks were made by other heavy bombers on a battery of antiaircraft guns, which ceased .-firing. During the night one of our aircraft encountered two enemy bombers and destroyed them both.