RAIDED FOR SEVEN HOURS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21841, 19 December 1940, Page 5

RAIDED FOR SEVEN HOURS

R.A.F. Attack On Mannheim Damage Admitted British Official Wireless RUGBY, December 17. An account of last night’s activities over Germany and occupied territory is given in an Air Ministry communique which states: “A series of concentrated attacks on Germany was continued last night when aircraft of the Bomber Command subjected targets in Mannheim, the chief industrial centre of the Upper Rhine, to a sustained attack which lasted for seven hours. The weather was good with a bright moon. “One of the principal factories was repeatedly straddled by bombs. “At Ludwigshaven, a suburb of Mannheim, an aniline dye factory, one of the largest in Germany, was set well alight, the fires being still visible half an hour after the attacking aircraft left. Bombs burst on the railway yards of the port and along the banks of the Rhine. “A particularly violent explosion was observed at Neckarstadt, in another suburb. Target Area Mass of Flames “By 3.30 a.m. the w'hole target area was a mass of flames. At Speyer, a town south of Mannheim, factory buildings were hit and targets at a town on the Neckar were set on fire. “The Royal Air Rorce also attacked several aerodromes in daylight yesterday, and six merchant vessels off the French coast. After the attack one vessel was observed to be listing to port and another on fire. “From all these operations four of cur aircraft are missing.” Nazis Admit Damage A German communique admits that the raid on Mannheim damaged buildings, including a hospital and two factories. Ten were killed and 50 injured. The Berlin correspondent of the British United Press states that officials admit that the Royal Air Force caused considerable civilian damage in Mannheim. An American commentator in Berlin reports that an important subway has been closed because of damage caused in the raid yesterday morning. There is also evidence that German workers are becoming dispirited because of the R.A.F. raids, and the Minister of Propaganda (Dr. Goebbels) has gone to Hamburg in an attempt to restore the spirit of the workers. Dusseldorf and Hamburg have also come in for many heavy raids, and it is reported that there has been a complete stoppage of work at Hamburg. The Germans are now finding it difficult to deny that these centres have been badly damaged. U-Boat Docks Bombed Coastal Command aircraft carried out heavy raids on docks and U-boats at Bordeaux early to-day, states the Air Ministry news service. From the time they left their base the navigators did not see land until they were near their targets. The effects of the heavy bombs were such that the observers in the aircraft had the impression of large buildings being lifted in entirety into the air before they disintegrated. When one raider over the docks let go a salvo of large calibre bombs, a wide column of flame rose to a height of 300 feet. Other bombs fell on the corner of a U-boat dock and were followed by an immense flash which produced a bright glow in the sky over Bordeaux.