OVER KIEL AGAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24433, 19 October 1940, Page 9

OVER KIEL AGAIN

BRITISH BOMBERS NAVAL DOCKYARD ATTACKED DIRECT HITS REGISTERED "■“ rh '-“w-iai Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, Oct. 17. For the second night in succession the naval dockyard at Kiel was among the principal targets attacked last night by R.A.F. bombers, states the Air Ministry News Service. Once again the raiders pressed home theii attack in the face of fierce opposition from batteries of heavy and light guns. At one time drifting clouds made the observation of results extremely difficult, but in the course of the bombardment (lasting over two hours) many high-explo-sive and incendiary bombs were seen to burst among the buildings of the Deutsche Werke and the Germania Yards. A salvo of high explosives is believed to have scored a direct hit on one of the main jetties.

The first raiders to take off from their base in England reached the target areas soon after 9 o’clock, and, according to one pilot, they were luckier than some of the others who followed, for on arrival they found “ a great horseshoe-shaped gap five miles across in the cloud layer over Kiel.” i Hamburg Among Targets Fifty-five miles south of Kiel other raiders were hammering at the docks at Hamburg, but here again the clouds hid the result of the bombing. At the same time other targets elsewhere in Germany were attacked. At Leuna the large synthetic oil plant, which had been damaged in previous raids, was again subjected to a prolonged bombardment. With the fij’st bombs dropped a large fire started, which served as a guide to the following aircraft. From then on and at regular intervals heavy-calibre bombs were dropped with precision on the. important objective and a further fire broke out, followed by numerous explosions and thick black smoke, which made evident the success of the bombing. One pilot who made a high-level attack at Leuna reported that his bombs started two fires, both of which burned with a brilliant white flame. Then suddenly there were three or four big explosions. The last pilot to attack the oil plant saw his bombs burst near a line of chimneys, and a few minutes afterwards there was a gigantic explosion. Direct hits were also registered on the power station of a factory near Leuna and on two factories southwest of Leipzig.