RAIDS ON GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24834, 6 February 1942, Page 5

RAIDS ON GERMANY

REASONS FOR REDUCED SCALE WEATHER AND OTHER DEMANDS ■RUGBY. Feb. 4. January weather and the demands of other the'atres of war worked together in the early part of last month to reduce the scale of the R.A.F. bombing offensive directed against Germany: nevertheless, in the first four weeks 15 main attacks were mads by the Bomber Command on targets in Germany or German-occupied Europe. This was greater than in December. ;; During the first two weeks the principal targets of home-based R.A.F. bombers outside Germany were at Brest, which was visited eight times. North-west Germany was raided on three occasions—once by day on. January 4 and twice by night. These were the : nights of the attacks on January 6-7 and on 10-11, when Wilhelmshaven and Emden were heavily attacked. In the second two weeks targets at Hamburg, Emden, Bremen, Munster, and Hanover were attacked by British bombers in a series of almost nightly raids. Bombers were out 10 nights of 14, their targets including north-west Germany, enemy aerodromes in Holland, and the docks at Brest, Boulogne, and Rotterdam.

Up to January 28, 40 aircraft were lost. The Coastal Command, which carried out patrol attacks on German convoys off Holland, lost three ait-craft in the same period. Enemy activity over Britain was very slight by contrast. On 15 out of. 28 nights there was nothing to report. Desultory visits were paid by a few German bombers to places as far apart as the Shetlands and south-west England, while a few fighters appeared off the south coast. German air losses over Britain in the first four weeks of January amounted to nine bombers and one fighter.

The activities of British fighters on the European front included attacks on enemy factories in France and on enemy aerodromes, besides patrols in force over the Channel and enemyoccupied territory. Ooarating against both enemy flak and fighters, the R.A.F. lost only six fighters and destroyed five Nazi fighters over their own ground. One other enemy fighter was shot down by a British bomber.