HEAVY DAMAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24606, 14 May 1941, Page 7

HEAVY DAMAGE

THE RAIDS ON GERMANY POWERFUL BOMBS USED DESTRUCTION IN BERLIN (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON. May 12. The R.A.F. raids on Berlin on May 9 caused particularly heavy damage near Doenhoff Platz and Potsdamer Platz, where a great number of buildings were destroyed, states a Zurich report. All neutral reports agree that the recent R.A.F. raids caused considerably more destruction than the earlier ones. The increased death rolls in Hamburg, Kiel and Bremen are attributed to fear of the population of the refuge shelters, because these are often blasted by the powerful British bombs. The construction of deep shelters is being started immediately and evacuation schemes are being prepared for seaports and dock centres. The massive attacks on Hamburg and Bremen are described in an Air Ministry communique, which states: Last night, in very good weather, the Bomber Command again attacked objectives at Hamburg and Bremen. A heavy weight of high explosives and incendiaries was dropped on shipbuilding yards and industrial areas in both cities. Many fires were started and left burning. Many Areas Attacked Small attacks were made on other targets, including Emden and the docks at Rotterdam. Four aircraft of the Bomber Command are missing. The Coastal Command last night attacked the docks at Ymuiden and the seaplane base on the island of Texel. No aircraft are missing from these operations. A later message states: The vast expanse of docks in Hamburg was the particular focus of an attack on Sunday night by a strong formation of R.A.F. bombers, which continued the destruction and disorganisation of vital parts of this great sea port before it had time to recover from the heavy attacks on Saturday night. The shipbuilding yards, nine miles in length, which line the banks cf.the Elbe, were threaded and crossed with fire. In the Blowam and Voss yards, where the Goeben and other German capital ships of the last war were built, high explosives and incendiaries increased the damage already done. Opposite these yards, on the other side of the river, the flames leapt high, and away ' from the docks industrial quarters in the town were vig-'rously assailed. Weather Assists Attackers The fine weather in. Hamburg extended to Bremen, the other main objective of the night, and one of the pilots said: "'lt was the kind of night when only a bomb aimer could be blamed if we missed the target, and there was nothing wrong with our b:.'mb aimer." Thz German High Command admitted that stronger R.A.F. formations were back over Germany, heavily bombing Hamburg, Bremen and elsewhere. They left " some damage " and dead and wounded. Berlin officials admitted that the R.A.F. set several warehouses on fire in Bremen in last night's raid. ATTACKS ON RAILWAY YARDS IMPORTANCE STRESSED (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) RUGBY, May 12. The importance of the British air attacks on the great German railway yards is stressed in the Swedish newspaper Handelstidning, which, analysing the vulnerability of German land communications, says: "So much is said about sinkings and the stoppage of England's imports that one forgets that in Germany's occupied territories communications are not working smoothly either. They are'at least equally considerable and as vulnerable as traffic over the oceans. Mr Wendell Willkie recently said that just those communications were Germany's vulnerable point, and in a picture in the Voelkischer Beobachter it gives an astonishing revelation of how vulnerable they are. It shows that 5000 tons of a ship's cargo capacity equals about 600 railway wagons. The piclure aims at showing the damage one torpedo can cause England, but it also shows what a great, delicate and difficult affair German transportation over wide areas is. That transportation cannot avoid railways, and the enemy's flyers know it and can easily hit station yards. Germany can. of course, smash England's railways and'factories, but cannot reach American factories and railways. The British know they are in personal danger, and work and suffer, but they shield themselves against it. The Germans are commanded to suffer and work against the promise of coming well-being, which is rather uncertain."