MASSIVE BLOWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 7

MASSIVE BLOWS

GREAT AIR FLEETS PREPARATIONS FOR ASSAULT BACK DOOR TO BERLIN ' LONDON, Mar. 22. The whole of the great back door to Berlin between the Ruhr Valley and Bremen was put under Allied bomb and rocket fire'to-day as the air forces switched from the captured Saar and the virtually cleared Palatinate to prepare for the forthcoming onslaught of w'hich General Eisenhower warned the Reich, says the Associated Press correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. The day and night Allied air blows against the Ruhr amount to a slow, relentless crippling of the whole of North-west Germany. The huge area of rolling plain east of the Rhine, against which the Allies have been solidly encamped for weeks, is being systematically deprived of the power of _ movement, which constitutes ability to resist a modern full-scale onslaught. The Ruhr, to all intents and purposes, is cut off from Western Germany, following the latest massive Allied air attacks, which are described as the greatest air assault of all time, says Reuter’s correspondent at Second tical Air Force headquarters. The combined Bomber and Tactical Commands to-day left front-line towns and fortified villages wrecked, smoking, and in flames, reduced the roads to masses of craters, and brought to a standstill all traffic behind Blaskowitz’s front line. Billowing Smoke By early afternoon the pilots returning from the raids reported that the entire area in and behind the German front lines was hidden under the haze from fires. Great clouds of billowing smoke were rising from towns and villages. All the crews reported that the bombing was concentrated and accurate. The region of devastation is spreading every hour. Heavy flak met the bombers, whose crews pressed home -the attacks through curtains of fire. One report on Alstalte, north of Koesfeld, was the shortest yet received at Tactical Air Force headquarters: “This place existed.” American heavy bombers, switching from airfield targets north-east of the Ruhr, attacked Frankfurt airfields, where the Luftwaffe is believed to be operating jet planes. The air assault along the river front included Duisburg railway yards, where railway installations and rolling stock went up in smoke.

The British United Press correspondent with the Twenty-first Army Group says the whole enemy transportation system has been so hacked about by the Tactical Air Force in the last few weeks that it is no longer considered an effective part of the German army organisation. The whole area has been turned into a smoking wreck of marshalling yards, stations, and shattered bridges.

Approximately 700 Mustangs, escorting R.A.F. American heavies, to-day covered Germany from Bremen, in the north-west, to Lake Constance in the south, and beyond Berlin almost to the Russian lines in the east. The Luftwaffe declined the challenge, but 13 enemy planes were shot down in isolated encounters, and 9 more destroyed on the ground. 10,000 Tons a Day

Home-based and European-based Allied air forces are now flying 8000 to 10,000 battle sorties a day, at times exceeding the effort before and after D-Day, says the Daily Telegraph’s aviation correspondent. Their bomb load is sometimes 10,000 tons a day. The airmen in their enthusiasm to hit the targets have been coming down to ground level. The heavies’ daylight pin-pointing has been particularly accurate. All monthly records will be broken if the present weather continues until March 31.