R.A.F. BOMBING OF GERMANY

Southland Times, Issue 24574, 24 October 1941, Page 5

R.A.F. BOMBING OF GERMANY

DAMAGE- TO CITIES BERLIN OVERHEAD RAILWAY HIT (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 22. From details which reach authoritative quarters in London from a variety of sources and by a variety of means it is possible to give a partial picture of the damage which the Royal AirForce has inflicted on Germany and German-occupied territory. From the middle of August to the middle of September the scale of the Royal Air Force attack was maintained, in spite of baa weather, and following are some of the effects of the attacks in this period. The attacks on Berlin, although the raid on September 7 was the heaviest yet undertaken, have not been comparable in weight with the Luftwaffes persistent attacks on the London area in the autumn and winter of 1940 and it is not possible to make comparisons of the damage done. Berlin, however, plays a greater part in the German industrial war effort than London does in Britain’s war effort. One of the works hit in the course of the past month is the Knorrbremse Agep Dant in an eastern suburb. This works produces almost all the brakes used on the German and indeed the European railways. Other items of damage inflicted in recent raids include considerable destruction in the railway repair shops at Schles. railway station and damage to railway installations at and near the Potsdamer and Anhalter stations. Here a tunnel between the two stations was hit, causing many casualties and a number of houses in the area between the stations was damaged. Hochbahn, Berlin’s four de luxe hotels were both the Friedrichstrasse, which it crosses. Just two or three weeks ago two of Berlin’s four de luxe hotels were both damaged on the same night. AIRCRAFT WORKS HIT In Bremen, Germany’s second largest port, with aircraft factories as well as shipbuilding yards and steel works, an aircraft works was hit in a daylight raid and many aircraft under construction were destroyed and many casualties in personnel resulted. At Deschimag the completion of submarines has been retarded and launchings at the Deutchsewerre yard are also behind schedule. In Kassel, an important engineering centre, good results are known to have been achieved by a raid on the night of September 8. The main station was hit on its south side and in the main booking hall where much of the roof collapsed. Two buildings at the entrance to the station were gutted.- The most extensive destruction was the complete gutting of the famous Palais and of Friedrich’s Museum. Heavy damage was also inflicted on property in the Herrenstrasse. Cologne, the third city of the Reich and the home of great engineering works and an important industrial and communications centre, is beginning to look in the middle of the city like some of the blitzed areas of English towns. The damage has been particularly severe in the Dammstrasse and in the neighbourhood of the town library. The large department store of Cords, which employed 1400 hands, has been completely destroyed, together with the neighbouring warehouse of Richmondis Haus. This was a wholesale store for Leonard Tietz, the largest stores in Koln, which were destroyed in an earlier raid. Several famous restaurants have been forced to close down. INDUSTRIAL AREA DAMAGED In the industrial districts frequent hits have been secured on the Humboldt factories. The Felton and Guillaume works have been hit and warehouse property in the port has also suffered, as have several of the railway yards. Similarly details are known of damage caused in raids on Mannheim, Karlsruhe and other principal objectives of the Bomber Command.