TOLL IN GERMANY

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 355, 25 October 1940, Page 1

TOLL IN GERMANY

BRITISH BOMBERS SUCCESSFUL RAIDING WAR OUTPUT CHECKED DAMAGE TO FACTORIES DOCKS AND OIL STORES (News by Cable.) RUGBY, Oct. 23. According to statements issued by the Air Ministry news service, further information received from reliable sources shows that the bombing of military objectives in Germany by the Royal Air Force has met with a large measure of success. The British air offensive has been directed mainly against tho enemy’s supply of war material, and wellinformed foreign industrialists say that about 20 per cent, of the total production capacity in Germany inis been affected through the repeated and determined attacks by' the Royal Air Force. In Mouhof and Hamburg, for instance, largo oil refineries have been forced to close as a result of tho constant bombing, and near the Hamburg docks three silos containing about 10,000 tons of wheat have been completely destroyed. The docks arc aJso known to havo boen badly damaged, as well as many important dockside buildings. Damage in Berlin Evidence had come to hand, too, of tho wreckage of a gas holder at Gelsenkirchen, ono of the largest of its kind in Europe. Berlin reports from neutral observers state that a large faeto"y making precision machinery for tho lighting services has been brought to a temporary standstill, while elsewhere in the city another factory containing machinery of vital importance has also suffered severe damage from direct hits. In the course of a recent raid on Berlin fires were started in several of the target areas and in tho words of another informer “much damage was done to railway property.” Tho service of the rapid transit system has also been affected and several of its sections have had to bo temporarily suspended.