R.A.F. ATTACK ON OSLO

Southland Times, Issue 24860, 28 September 1942, Page 5

R.A.F. ATTACK ON OSLO

Nazi Headquarters Bombed (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 26. A Royal Air Force attack on Oslo yesterday is officially announced by the Air Ministry. During a rally of National Socialists yesterday afternoon four bombers attacked the Nazi headquarters in the city. At the time of the attack a meeting of party leaders was being held nearby. Bombs were dropped from about 1000 feet and hits were seen on the Gestapo building. One of our aircraft is missing, and the others returned safely. A German allegation that three of the attacking bombers were shot down confirms the effect of the attack. The Air Ministry’s News Service says the aircraft were Mosquitoes. This is the first time this new twin-engined light bomber has been mentioned on operational duties. There was brilliant sunshine over the Norwegian capital during the attack. A flight of Focke-Wulf 190’s attacked them a few miles from Oslo when the plane mentioned was lost. The remaining three aircraft bombed from a low level and saw their bombs strike the Gestapo building in Oslo. QUISLING TAKES TO CELLARS An agency message states that the bombers reached Oslo unobserved and the sirens sounded only when explosions rocked the University building where the Quisling meeting was taking place. The Nazi puppet leader, Major Vidkun Quisling, with his bodyguard and audience took to the cellars. The first alarm was at 5 pan. and another was sounded just under an hour later, ruining the arrangements for a big parade of his followers before Quisling, which was timed for 6.30. . The Press Association’s aeronautical correspondent says the Oslo raid was the first occasion on'which mention was made of a Mosquito being used by the Royal Air Force on operational service. The Mosquito is a twin-engined light bomber still on the secret list. It is evident that the Mosquito is very fast as three eluded Focke-Wulf 190’s, Germany’s newest and fastest fighter. ENEMY SHIPPING ATTACKED An Air Ministry communique states that attacks were made on enemy, shipping during the night by naval aircraft and aircraft of the Coastal Command near the Dutch coast, and by Hurricanes of the Fighter Command in the Straits of Dover near the French coast. The results of the attacks were difficult to observe, but at least one hit was seen on a medium-sized merchant ship off the Dutch coast. A fighter on reconnaissance early this morning sighted a coastal vessel aground between Calais and Cap Gris Nez and badly damaged. None of our aircraft is missing from these operations.

AXIS AIR-POWER “SHOE BEGINNING TO PINCH” (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 26. The North American newspaper Alliance correspondent, Glen Perry, says that dispatches from the war zones both in the east and west give evidence that the Axis is spread pretty thin in aeroplanes. While most officials agree with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Mr J. V. Forrestal, that the war is still going badly and that herculean efforts are needed to change the situation, they recognize certain bright spots. The aviation picture is one—because of Allied plane production and because of indications that the Axis shoe is beginning to pinch in air-power. While it is not wise to assume that this phase has definitely and permanently turned in our favour, the fact remains that the air picture does not look at all bad. There is a possibility that German planes are being held in reserve for a big push, but the indications are that Hitler is being forced to do one thing at a time because the Germans have insufficient air strength to sustain the big show on the Russian front and the Egyptian and West European operations at the same time. Summed up, the United Nations are evidently now able to restrict the Axis from taking the initiative when and where it chooses. KARLSRUHE DAMAGED Two-Thirds Destroyed LONDON, September 26. Eye-witnesses declare that in the recent Royal Air Force raid on Karlsruhe two-thirds of the city was either destroyed or so badly damaged that only the outlines of the ruined buildings remain. . The damage was among the heaviest ever inflicted on a German city. The dead are estimated at 8000 to 10,000, while hundreds were drowned in the shelters through the bursting of water mains and drainage pipes. The. fires were so extensive that the brigades were summoned from Heidelberg and Stuttgart. Bombs battered the industrial quarter of the port and the heart of the city. Many workers have now been transferred from Karlsruhe to factories in Venice and Milan. It is now known that the destruction of the Humboldt-Deutz engineering works as a result of the 1000-bomber raid on Cologne was far more extensive than was at first thought. A depot at Bremen has received no spare parts for Diesel engines from the HumboldtDeutz works since Cologne was attacked on May 30. The Army depot m Cologne containing spare engines for lorries was hit during the same attack and more than 1000 engines were destroyed or seriously damaged. „ “We are hitting Germany hard now, says the British air attache in Washington. “The Nazis are learning a bitter and costly lesson in massed bombing.