DESTRUCTION AND CHAOS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21677, 11 June 1940, Page 5

DESTRUCTION AND CHAOS

R.A.F. LEAVES TRAIL OF WRECKAGE Germany And Battle Zone Bombed Successful Operations British Official Wireless (Received June 10, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, June 9. Details contained in Air Ministry bulletins indicate that the Royal Air Force was intensely active during the day and night of Saturday. Enemy transport columns were scattered and flung Into confut-on, lines of tanks were heavily bombed, armoured cars and motor lorries were reduced to twisted wreckage from direct hits, troops on the inarch were machine-gunred, antiaircraft guns were attacked and silenced and a petrol dump hidden in a wood was blown up w».en British bombers ranged over the right wing of the German onslaught in the region of Bresle and the Somme on Saturday and series of deep and shallow dive bombing attacks spread destruction and chaos at many points behind the enemy line. Just before mid-day columns of German motor vehicles and troops were caught by British medium bombers on the roads between Amiens and Aumale and within a few minutes hundreds of bombs were falling on and around them. The raiders scored a direct hit on the head of a column of tanks and motor transport vehicles on a road. In the Hornoy region a stationary column of lorries was bombed and a direct hit scored with a bomb on a road railway crossing. Near Hallivillers a line of a few tanks was heavily bombed. Lorries moving along a road near Foix were reduced to scrap iron by direct hits. Troops and transport vehicles caught in the village of Piss also came in for heavy attacks, bombs falling right in among them. A salvo of bombs launched on a tightly packed column of armoured vehicles south-west of Quevauvillers straddled their objectives and elsewhere in the region accurate bombing resulted in direct hits and casualties to motorised columns both moving and stationary, on roads, in woods and in villages. Dump Blown Up

Later in the evening another force of bombers carried out an attack on a petrol dump in a wood nor', i of Abbeville. High explosives and nearly 100 incendiary bombs wore dropped. With a tremendous roar the dump blew up. Between nightfall and until shortly before dawn on Sunday Royal Air Force heavy bombers wer? almost continuously in action against military objectives in Germany and the battle zone in Northern France. Enemy reinforcements moving up towards the line of the Somme offensive were bombed and harassed by machine-gun fire and ammunition dumps were destroyed. Lines of communication in many parts of the back area were cut by low level bombing attacks. Other sections of the raiding force, penetrating the German defences, attacked marshalling yards and railway junctions at key points between Rhenish Prussia and the 1 -Igian frontier, setting goods waggons alight, blocking tunnels and disorganising rail traffic. Abbeville was heavily attacked soon after dark by a section of heavy bombers, one of which scored two direct hits on the main railway bridge completely demolishing one end of it. In a second raid on the town two hours later main roads were hit with high explosive bombs and one salvo, overshooting the bridge at which it was aimed, apparently struck an ammunition store, for the terrific explosion which followed lit up the town and violently rocked the aircraft above. In an attack on St. Valery, eight miles west of Abbeville, a railway and road budge over the Somme estuary was repeatedly hit, one salvo bursting on top of an anti-aircraft battery which was defending it. A parachute flare dropped after the attack showed that the northern span had completely collapsed. Woods Ablaze Bombs dropped on a column of heavy vehicles in the forest of Boulem struck an ammunition lorry which blew up and set the surrounding woods ablaze. A convoy moving towards Bray on the Albert road was repeatedly bombed from a low level and a few minutes after a salvo had been dropped on moving lights in Bois de Chimay a series of explosions occurred as ammunition or petrol dumps went up in flames. Eight direct hits on the railway junction and Charleville wrecked the main line track, demolished warehouses and set a petrol container alight. A railway siding crowded with loaded goods waggons was straddled by a salvo of bombs and left blazing. At Valenciennes an oil storage plant was bombed and exploded in a vast sheet of flames. In Germany marshalling yards near Essen, Duren and Euskirchen were among the objectives raided in the early hours of the morning. Another aircraft returning from Germany encountered a lar_e convoy of vehicles near Wavre. Having no bombs left the captain decided to attack the convoy with machine-gun fire. The gunners opened fire from a height of 150 eet and lor 20 minutes kept up an almost incessant fusilade on the convoy. Enemy occupied aerodromes in Abbeville and Eindhoven in Holland were also raided during the night. At Abbeville a fierce fire was seen to break out after heavy bombing attacks, while rt Eindhoven more than 2000 rounds were fired in the course of a scries of low flying machine-gun attacks on the aerodrome and buildings. These are but a section of some of the successful activities carried out by the Royal Air Force during a period of some 24 hours. French Successes The part played by the French Air Force in these operations is described in the latest French Air Ministry communique issued in Paris to-night. It states that the air force worked in close collaboration with the land forces. Bombers and fighters took part in the action supporting the troops in the area where the most violent battle is now going on. They repeatedly attacked armoured columns, and lines of communication, as well as troop concentrations. In the wake of one raid carried out over

dumps of material, great fires were observed. The harassing of troop columns and supply columns continued with much success throughout the day, the enemy being attacked with bombs and machine-guns. One squadron alone dropped thirty tons of bombs on the ene: y, inflicting serious losses. AJI the French machines returned to their bases. Troop concentrations were scattered as the result of lightning raids by other formations of French machines, which executed an attack in cooperation with the land forces. Tank concentrations were destroyed and others turned back by the intensive fire from the air and land forces. The enemy aircraft brought down by the French were considerable, but the exact number cannot be given. German aeroplanes were reported to have bombed the souther suburbs of Paris this afternoon. An official spokesman, however, said that no bomb.s had been dropped on Paris or suburbs on Sunday. The nearest bombs dropped were in the Oise Valley, 15 miles from the outskirts of Paris. Paris anti-aircraft batteries were in action at intervals all night, being especially violent at 1.45 and again at 7 o’clock. The latest Air Ministry casualty communique lists the names of 24 officers and men killed in action, of whom seven previously were reported missing and one previously reported missing believed killed; 24 wounded or injured in action, four died of wounds received in action, seven missing believed killed on active service, 12 killed on active service, six wounded on active service, 14 died on active service, and nine prisoners of war previously reported missing.