INVASION PORTS BATTERED

Southland Times, Issue 24356, 10 February 1941, Page 5

INVASION PORTS BATTERED

Successful Raids

By

R.A.F.

(British Official Wireless) (Received February 9, 9 p.m.) RUGBY, February 8. Following raids by the Royal Air Force on the invasion ports of Boulogne, Dunkirk, Dieppe, Calais and Fecamp on Thursday night, successful raids were carried out again on Friday night. An Air Ministry news bulletin describing Friday night’s successful raids on the invasion ports says: The attacks, which were made in perfect weather, were clearly seen and heard from the coast of Kent. The heaviest raid of the night fell on the anchorage at Boulogne. Our bombers were over shortly after 8.30 p.m., and by 11.15 p.m.. when the last of the bombers were on their way back, many heavy bombs and some thousands of incendiary bombs had been dropped. The docks at Boulogne arc crowded within a fairly small space, and pilot after pilot reported direct hits. The port was heavily defended and flag ships off the mole opened fire but failed to stop any of the bombers. Then the shore batteries came into action, working in co-operation with searchlights, which at times formed a huge cone of light over the town and docks. Bombers dropped bombs accurately along the quayside and jetties, across the dock gates and along the railway serving the harbour. As the attacks continued fires sprang up at many points over the whole area. In the attack on Dunkirk our bombers also encountered good weather, and many successful attacks were made upon ships and barges. A sergeant pilot, who took part in this attack, reported, on return, the probable destruction of several enemy vessels. He said “We saw tons of debris blown high in the air after our bombs straddled three of the main docks. At one point we came down to machine-gun a group of searchlights which were doing their best to pick us up.” Light cloud also hung over Ostend and Calais but was never thick enough to hide the docks, and here, too, bombs were seen to burst within the target areas. INCREASED ACTIVITY During the week ended at dawn on Friday Royal Air Force raids on Germany and German-occupied territory were on a larger scale than those in recent weeks. Three raids were made on Boulogne, three on Brest, three on Ostend, two on Dieppe, and two on Dunkirk.

Fighters escorting a small bomber force twice made offensive sweeps in daylight over a wide area of Northern France, when aerodromes and ports were attacked. At Dusseldorf, the various targets bombed included two railway junctions, a train, aerodromes, and a large factory, some of the heaviest type of high explosive bombs being dropped. In all these operations 16 British aircraft were lost, and six German fighters were destroyed, in addition to 12 German machines shot down over and around the British coasts during the same period for no British losses.