MUNICH LEFT IN FLAMES

Southland Times, Issue 25347, 26 April 1944, Page 5

MUNICH LEFT IN FLAMES

AIR OFFENSIVE CONTINUED PLANES POUR ACROSS CHANNEL (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 25. The Air Ministry reports that Bomber Command aircraft were over Germany in very great strength last night, with Karlsruhe and Munich as the main objectives. The attacks were well concentrated. A reconnaissance pilot, who flew over Munich an hour after the attack, reported that a large area of the city was ablaze. Karlsruhe and Munich are both important industrial and railway centres.

Mosquitoes attacked Dusseldorf last night. Thirty planes are missing from the night’s opera- ! i tions. __ A few hours after the R.A.F. returned from raids on Karlsruhe and Munich, Allied air fleets were again roaring out from Britain for the Continent, says the Press Association. The offensive began shortly after daybreak when successive formations of planes flew over the straits to France and Belgium. The aviation correspondent of the British United Press says the use of the ■term “in very great strength” indicates that Monday night’s raids were among the heaviest the R.A.F. has carried out. Munich, the Nazi Party’s headquarters, is also an industrial town and communications centre. Karlsruhe is one of the main German supply routes to Italy and to Alsace and eastern France. It has important railway repair shops, machine plants and precision instrument works. The total number of aircraft engaged in yesterday’s attacks on Friedrichshafen and Munich was well over 1500, The bombing results were generally satisfactory and visibility over the targets was good. Two bomber divisions reported light opposition from enemy aircraft and one division told of determined and continuous attacks by numbers of German fighters. Heavy air battles were fought by both fighter escort and bombers. In addition to escort and support missions many fighters strafed enemy airfields destroying a large number of grounded aircraft. Sixty-six enemy aircraft were reported shot down by our fighters, and 37 by the bombers. Thirty-eight bombers and 17 fighters are jnissing. RAILWAY YARDS ATTACKED

In another operation the 9th Air Force of fighter-bombers dive-bombed railway yards near Louvain, Belgium. No enemy aircraft attempted interception, but the planes had to fight through heavy flak. Three failed,to return. Yet more horhe-based aircraft — R.A.F. and R.C.A.F. Typhoon and Spitfire fighter-bombers of the 2nd Tactical Air Force—attacked the railway yards at Amiens, docks and shipping at Dienpe and other targets in northern France. None of these aircraft are missing. Two enemy machines were destroyed. Over 3100 bomber sorties and 2300 fighter sorties were flown over Germany and occupied countries by the United States Bth Air Force during the week ended on Saturday. During the week heavy bombers shot down 37 enemy aircraft and the fighter escort destroyed 58. In addition a number of planes were destroyed on the ground. The Bth Air Force lost 52 bombers and 37 fighters. WIDESPREAD ATTACKS Attacking in five countries in the past 24 hours, Allied bombing battalions maintained the great pre-invasion offensive at the highest pitch. Targets in France, Belgium, Germany, Yugoslavia and Rumania were hammered in one of the most widespread operations of the war. Between 750 and 1000 heavy bombers with a similar number of fighters in a round trip of nearly 1200 miles from Britain struck deep into southern Germany today hammering aircraft and other factories at Friedrichshaven and a number ofrairfields around Munich. Probably another 1000 bombers and fighters from Italy attacked Bucharest, Ploesti railway yards and the Ikarua aircraft factory at Belgrade. Rome radio stated that Allied planes attacked Rome this afternoon. In the meantime the other great Allied offensive from Britain against continental objectives was continued throughout the day. Large forces crossed the Straits of Dover this morning and again this afternoon. A coastal correspondent reported tonight: “Allied squadrons are still being heard going out and returning above the cloud belt over the straits.” Messages from Switzerland indicate the severity of the attack against Friedrichshaven, which lies on Lake Constance, only a few miles from Swiss territory. Reuter’s Zurich correspondent says that Friedrichshaven and the whole of Lake Constance were covered by a smoke screen put up by the Germans when the Allied raid began. An eye-witness said the raid was of almost incredible violence. Detonations shook houses and broke in windows on the Swiss side of the lake. A Swiss communique says that 10 American bombers landed on Swiss' territory; others crashed, the crews baling out. Reuter’s correspondent adds that Swiss Air Force fighters escorted damaged American bombers to Duebendorf landing ground about five miles north-east of Zurich.

Algiers radio stated that Allied planes supporting the patriots in Yugoslavia attacked enemy shipping in Dubrovinik harbour in the past 24 hours. Sweeps were carried out off the Albanian coast. The Daily Mail’s Madrid correspondent declares that the Allied raids against French railway centres have reduced the country’s entire system to a state of chaos. The persistent pounding of all the great dispatching junctions is causing indefinite delays. Germany’s leading air commentator, Karl von Zeppelin, speaking on the Berlin radio said: “There is no chance of cutting off the German army in the west from its supply lines by air attacks or even hampering supplies to a degree worth mentioning.” The British United Press aviation correspondent comments that every main line from Germany to western France has been bombed heavily and some marshalling yards have been obliterated.

Berlin radio’s military commentator, Hallensleben, claimed that German air industry every week is adding new formations to its second front reservoir. “We for obvious reasons are unable to reveal what percentages of the aircraft industry is now working in underground factories,” he said. “We confine ourselves to saying that Germany foresaw the Allied offensive against her air production and took the necessary steps long before the Anglo-American air invasion began,” j