HEAVILY BOMBED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24460, 20 November 1940, Page 7

HEAVILY BOMBED

ENEMY OIL REFINERIES DIRECT HITS ON TARGETS HUGE FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph-Copyright) RUGBY, Nov. 18. An Air Ministry communique states: The main force of our bombers' attack last night was on the oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen. Other aircraft bombed industrial targets in the Ruhr, rail and river communi-' cations in western Germany, and the naval base at Lorient, in Brittany and aerodromes in occupied territory. All our planes returned safely. . The R.A.F. began its attacks on •the main target of last night's raids at an exceptionally early hour, says the Air Ministry News Service. The main objectives were concentrated blows on the Scholven synthetic oil plant at Buer, in the neighbourhood of Gelsenkirchen. This is one of Germany's most important hydrogenation plants for the manufacture of synthetic aviation petrol from coal, and is designed to produce 300,000 metric tons annually. The first British aircraft arrived before 7 o'clock. Cloud made it difficult to find and observe the factory buildings, but these first squadrons remained for nearly an hour, during which time they found opportunity to place many high explosives and nearly 1000 incendiaries on the target. All but one of the pilots reported a fire and saw a magnificent conflagration which quicklv spread till it covered an area of half a square mile. It was still burning fiercely 15 minutes after the attack.

Weather Far From Perfect After about an hour's interval more bombers arrived over the same plant. They found the weather far from perfect. There was a certain amount of ground haze. The antiaircraft fire was well aimed, but not particularly intense. There was a great concentration of searchlights. The second raid lasted nearly two hours. Many fires and explosions were seen. Direct hits were noticed on various large buildings. Another synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen, only second in importance to the Scholven refinery, -was raided at intervals from soon after dusk till fairly late in the night. Here there were thick ground haze and cloud during certain periods, though at other times the weather, apart from the haze, was quite favourable.

Six fires resulted from this attack and explosions were caused by the fires. Yet another oil refinery was attacked towards midnight. Though there was cloud this was not enough to prevent observation. The bursts from one aircraft were seen to cause two major explosions five minutes after the bombs had fallen. About 500 incendiaries were dropped, and many subseauent fires were seen. Fires Spread Rapidly The railway junction north-west of Gelsenkirchen was hit with heavy high explosives, and at another railway station among the Gelsenkirchen collieries—for Gelsenkirchen is the chief seam coal mining centre in the Ruhr Basin as well as the locality of many oil refineries—incendiaries started a long fire and a smaller fire which were seen to be spreading rapidly. The railway yards near the main railway station at Gelsenkirchsn were raided. Bombs were seen to straddle the western end of the yards. The aerodrome at Buer. near Gelsenkirchen, was attacked and incendiaries started fires, but a ground haze made observation of the full results impossible. Other aircraft were operating far and wide over western Germany. Five large fires were started among the wharves at Duisberg-Ruhrort the inland port of the Rhine, and in spite of a thick haze the R.A.F. pressed home the attack. Many fires broke out, followed by formidable explosions. Fires and explosions al Hamm were observed through a gap in the clouds. The aerodrome north of Dusseldorf was also heavily bombed, three fires merging into one large blaze. A number of other industrial targets were attacked, Bombs were also dropped in the dock at Den Helder and Lorient, starting fires.