ABOVE GERMANY

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 315, 25 September 1940, Page 4

ABOVE GERMANY

BRITISH RAIDERS OCCUPIED AREAS FURTHER TOLL TAKEN RAZING OF BASES OIL REFINERY PLANTS (News by Cable.) LONDON, Sept. 23. ' As the German raiders over Britain departed before down, news came from Berlin that three waves of British planes flying over Holland, attacked north Germany overnight, visiting Brandenburg and also the Potsdam and Oranienburg areas of Berlin. The air alarm in Berlin lasted for over two hours. The Air Ministry announced that the Royal Air Force bombed ene-my-occupied bases in France and Belgium and “important targets in Germany.” Some details of raids of the Royal Air Force on Nazi oil refineries were revealed by authoritative London quarters to-day. As early as the end of August repeated attacks had been delivered on all important oil refineries in tho north-west and west of Germany which would account for the bulk of the total German refinery capacity and the largest which possess storage installations which together form an important proportion of Germany’s total storage capacity. According to expert calculation, these attacks, in addition to reducing the production of lubricating oil, resulted in the destruction- of a quantity of finished stocks. Synthetic Oil As for synthetic oil, 1,000,000 tons out of the total capacity of 2,500,005 tons is located in western Germany and the areas have been heavily attacked duivng recent months, while a further 1,250,000 tons capacity, including the famous works in Magdeburg and Leipzig, are being includecj in tho Royal Air Force’s early autumn programme. The Gorman authorities claim that they have strengthened their own defences which “halted the British raiders near Potsdam.”