R.A.F. RAID ON OBERFELD

Southland Times, Issue 25690, 26 June 1943, Page 5

R.A.F. RAID ON OBERFELD

HEAVY ATTACK DEVASTATED CITY - IN RUHR (Rec. 1.15 a.m.) LONDON, June 25. Oberfeld, which forms the western part of Wuppertal, was the target for heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force last night. Thirty-three bombers are missing. Wuppertal was heavily blitzed a few weks ago. Hundreds of acres of the city were devastated. Last night’s raid was nearly as heavy. During the night bombers attacked other targets in the Ruhr and laid mines in enemy waters. CITY KILLED IN A NIGHT RAID ON DUSSELDORF (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, June 24. The bombing of the Ruhr is featured by the British national newspapers, which publish large photographs of a big area of Dusseldorf showing the toll taken by Royal Air Force bombs. One caption states: “This is the most terrible picture ever published of the destructive power of the bombing aeroplane.” Photographs taken a week after the raid show “some fires still smouldering. But still rp° re grim is the fact that a close examination shows a dead city. It was killed in a night.” The 75th (New Zealand) Bomber Squadron took part in the latest raid against Mulheim. In addition there were New Zealanders in other squadrons. The diplomatic correspondent of The Times states that,, even outside the devastated areas the power of the Royal Air Force is weighing on many German minds nearly as much as the strength of the Russian armies obsessed them six months ago. After hesitating whether or not to belittle the raids the authorities are now releasing news about the spreading devastation in order to brace the people to a sense of their danger. All the emphasis is put on the damage to houses and flats. By an equal distortion of fact the Ruhr and the Lower Rhine are said to have little industrial value because of the dispersal of industry. Newspapers such as the Berliner Borsen Zeitung declare that the Royal Air Force campaign is a stab in the back, using the phrase which for 20 years covered the blockade of the last war and the disintegration at home and was supposed to exonerate the German armies from responsibility for defeat. ROME AS_TARGET demand LONDON, June 24. “Rome will be bombed unless it is declared an open city. We welcome this declaration of Royal Air Force policy,’-’ says The Evening Standard. “All we ask now is that the threat having been made, it shall be carried out effectively and in good time. “Rome is the nerve centre of the I Fascist regime and the bastion of Fascist morale. It boasts great industrial plants and a network of communi-'' cations vital to the Italian war effort. From Rome Mussolini directed Italian airmen to join the Luftwaffe in raining death on London. The time to reveal our power is now. We seek no reprisal for the destruction here of 600 churches. We seek no revenge against that vandalism which blasted the irreplacable treasures of some of our loveliest cathedrals and many of our oldest churches to dust, but we have allowed too long a tender regard for the historic monuments of a cradle of civilization to dictate our policy in prosecuting the war against the Fascist homeland. We have the opportunity to force from Mussolini the final word' on the fate of Rome—the word which will symbolize capitulation. The Archbishop of York, Dr C. F. Garbett, revealing in a York diocesan leaflet that he is receiving letters protesting against the Allied bombing of Axis towns, writes in reply: “The real justification for continuing the bombing is that it will shorten the war and may save'thousands of lives. Those who demand the cessation of all bombing are advocating a policy which will condemn many more of our soldiers to death and postpone the hour of liberation, which alone will save from massacre and torture those who are now in the Nazi power. We must continue to use our superiority in the air however much we deplore the sufferings of civilians and the destruction of homes and beautiful buildings.” WIDESPREAD BOMBING More Than 400 Planes Over France (8.0.W.) ' RUGBY, June 24. ; Ten enemy aircraft were destroyed and many more were probably de- ■ stroyed or damaged by Spitfires of the ' Fighter Command which gave cover to j ( Royal Air Force bombers and fighter- I: bombers when they attacked targets in Holland and France today. Between 400 and 500 aircraft were engaged in the operation, which extended from Flushing to the Cherbourg Peninsula. * Despite heavy flak Venturas scored J concentrated hits on the storage tanks 1 at Flushing. Spitfire pilots saw volumes ] •of smoke rising from the tanks, also > bombs hitting the docks. All the £ bombers returned safely. ' An hour or two later another forma- * tiorf of Venturas dropped bombs on the airfield at Maupertus, near Cherbourg. t Moderate anti-aircraft fire was experi- i enced, but no enemy fighters attempted to intercept. When Bostons returned r from attacking the marshalling yards e at St. Omer they reported having seen 1 no enemy aircraft. This was largely due to the vigilance ot the fighters c sweeping north and west of the town, i Typhoons' went to St. Omer and attacked through heavy anti-aircraft fire x the dispersal areas on the airfields at r . Fort Rouge. In the afternoon Mitchells I attacked airfields at Brest. Typhoon fighter-bombers attacked Morlaix airfield and met no enemy aircraft. In the evening Venturas bombed the power station at Yainville, near Rouen. In the day’s operations the Royal Air Force losses were one bomber and four fighters missing. ]

AMERICAN. EXPANSION 115,000 Planes This Fiscal Year (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 25. “The United States Army Air Forces will be increased by 115,000 planes this fiscal year,” General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Air Forces, told the House of Representatives Civil Service Committee. This would cost 36,000,000,000 dollars (about £9,000,000,000). General. Arnold said he was asking for an additional 56,000 civilian personnel, of which he would make full use, thereby releasing fighting men for the front line.