R.A.F. ATTACK ON ENEMY VESSELS

Southland Times, Issue 24492, 21 July 1941, Page 5

R.A.F. ATTACK ON ENEMY VESSELS

FOUR SHIPS PROBABLY DESTROYED BLENHEIM PILOTS’ DARING ■ (8.0.W.) , RUGBY, July 19. Another notable success in the Royal Air Force’s offensive against German communications and supplies was scored today when Blenheims of the Bomber Command carried out what is officially described as a very successful attack on an enemy convoy escorted by anti-aircraft ships off the Dutch coast. Four ships of the convoy were probably destroyed. Three of them, each of about 6000 tons, were set on fire and the fourth, of about 4000 tons, blew up after being hit astern. Heavy bombers, escorted by fighters, bombed the docks at Dunkirk this afternoon. Four enemy fighters were I destroyed by the escort. From all these operations three of our bombers and two fighters are missing. The enemy convoy off the Dutch coast was so heavily escorted by antiaircraft ships that they almost equalled I the number of vessels they escorted. The I fact that the convoy nevertheless was broken up and four of the largest vessels were probably sunk is a tribute to the courage and daring with which the attack was delivered. The vessel which blew up received at least four direct hits. The Blenheim which hit one of the others approached almost at sea-level through violent anti-aircraft fire. NORWEGIANS’ WELCOME Details of an attack by aircraft of the Coastal Command on an enemy supply ship off Norway this morning and of the welcome the bombers received from the local Norwegian inhabitants is given in an Air Ministry bulletin. The German ship was sighted off the Norwegian coast by Bristol Beaufort aircraft. They attacked, flying low to drop their bombs—one aircraft actually passed between the masts of the ship. The pilot of another saw one of his bombs fall through the rigging. A few minutes later the bombers, which had banked away steeply to avoid anti-air-craft fire returned to rake the decks with machine-gun fire. The vessel in the meantime had listed heavily and was steaming very slowly. As the aircraft went over Norwegians came to the doors of their houses and waved and fishermen stood up in their boats, also waving.

DUSSELDORF REDUCED TO RUINS

LONDON. July 18. An Ankara message reports that diplomats arriving from Germany . say that the intensity of the recent British raids surpasses anything . the Luftwaffe has attempted on Britain. Dusseldorf, on which members of the Royal Air Force from American “Flying Fortresses” dropped American 40001 b and 10001 b bombs, is now practically charred ruins. Bremen’s harbour installations have been blasted until they are useless. Hanover has had the heaviest bombing of any military objectives since the outbreak of the war. The Germans are dredging and dynamiting Kiel Canal several times a week in order to remove the wreckage of shipping sunk by bombs. Railway communications in Western Germany have been extensively and seriously damaged. This has resulted in a shortage of food and other commodities in many places. The destruction or damaging by the Royal Air Force on July 16 of nearly 150,000 tons of enemy shipping at Rotterdam was not only by far the most devastating air attack on shipping in a port, but was also an important part of the carefully-worked-out plan of attack on the German transport system. Rail and sea transport in Ger-man-occupied territory is regarded as a single unit and the Royal Air Force, having by the heavy and repeated bombing of vital railway centres caused increasing dislocation to the land transport system, has caused the enemy to seek relief from the strain by resort to coastal shipping, which the Royal Air Force then attacks round the coasts and in the harbours.

Rotterdam is by far the most important harbour in north-western Europe and the principal port for traffic to and from the Ruhr, which produces nearly 70 per cent, of Germany’s steel. Nightly bombing of industry and transport is slowly and steadily destroying the heart of German industrial power.