AIR ASSAULT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25426, 6 January 1944, Page 3

AIR ASSAULT

DAY AND NIGHT RAIDS MOSQUITOES OVER BERLIN AMERICANS ATTACK KIEL (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 5. The Allied air assault on Germany was continued by day and night yesterday. R.A.F. Mosquitoes were over Berlin and other German towns after dark, and during the day American planes heavily bombed the shipbuilding city of Kiel and the important railway junction of Munster. All the night bombers returned from their mission, which included mine-laying and raids on targets in Northern France. The daylight attacks on Kiel and Munster were made by strong forces of American heavy bombers, and good results are reported, although heavy cloud obscured the targets. At Kiel large fires were observed and swirling clouds of smoke. The marshalling yards at Munster were heavily bombed. Both forces were supported by Allied fighters, which shot down eight German planes, the bombers accounting tor another four. R.A.F. fighters on supporting sweeps destroyed five enemy planes. Eighteen American bombers and three fighters are missing. “A strong force of American bombers carried out a terror attack on Kiel at mid-day yesterday under cover of thick cloud from a height of 20,000

to 27,000 feet,” says the Berlin radio. “A great number of incendiaries and phosphorus bombs were dropped, causing heavy damage, especially ,in the residential and university quarter. A historic castle was also seriously damaged.” Kiel was last attacked three weeks ago, when the U.S.A.A.F. dropped 900 tons. On that occasion the bombers first used the new technique for “ through the cloud ” bombing. The assault on the coast of France reached its highest peak yesterday when 1200 Allied bombers and fighters roared across the Channel to bomb military objectives on the coast in a dawn-to-dusk attack. By noon 450 bombers had crossed the Channel and later another 400 took up the assault. High German military officers are amazed at the accuracy of the R.A.F.’s new secret navigation device, which enables targets to be bombed with precision regardless of the weather conditions, says the Stockholm correspondent of the Associated Press. A source with a close connection with German military circles said the secret weapon caught the Germans “flatfooted.”