INLAND PORT BOMBED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21819, 23 November 1940, Page 7

INLAND PORT BOMBED

Heaviest Raid Of War Extensive Damage By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, November 21. The Great German inland port of Duisburg-Ruhrort was selected as the main target for the Royal Air Force last night. The raid, which was described as the heaviest yet, lasted from shortly after 11 p.m. until dawn. The port is the bridgehead of an elaborate communication system where rail, road and canal meet with a constant flow of war materials from the Ruhr and Rhineland. Its docks are constantly filled by barges, hundreds of which daily discharge cargoes of iron, oil and grain. The town has four railway stations, and many first-class roads. The attack was carried out from high and low levels. Among the projectiles were special small calibre high-explo-sive bombs chosen to do most damage over such an extensive target. The first machines arrived over the target at 11 o’clock, and from then on till break of day the town, and its communications, were subject to a continuous bombardment. The second wave of bombers counted 34 bursts and there were too many fires to be counted. A huge warehouse at one end of the docks was ablaze, silos were on fire and the main docks were hit and damaged. One pilot, on his return, recalled that Baedeker’s Guide said that the Germans, praising this great centre, were wont to say a trip round Duisburg’s docks was well worth while. “We certainly found it so,” he added. Other targets included aerodromes in Brittany, Normandy and Picardy. Near Amiens, a German bomber, which had evidently just taken off, for its navigation lights were showing, was picked up by a Blenheim. The British machine gave the German bursts from front and rear guns as it swept past, and the German was seen to crash in flames on its own airport. The fire helped later bombers. The oil plant at Lautzingen, in Holland, and the ports of Ostend, Dunkirk, and Cherbourg, and the German submarine base at I’Orient were also raided effectively. One British aeroplane has not reported to its base. A German communique mentions air attacks against the southern harbours of England. It states that British aeroplanes attacked aerodromes in he west and north of France. Bombs were dropped at several places in western Germany, but the only hits scored were on smelting works. Duisberg-Ruhrort is the largest river port in the world and a vital link between the Rhine and the Ruhr. The port is a strategic point of critical importance, being the main intermediary between the Ruhr’s road, rail and river communications and . the bridgehead for the whole of the industrial area on the right banks of the Rhine. Coal from the Ruhr comes into its four railway stations daily. Many roads bring other freight while hundreds of barges daily unload iron, oil and grain. A serious raid like last night’s one must have disorganised essential traffic end destroyed indispensable materials.