BERLIN STRAFED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1940, Page 5

BERLIN STRAFED

IN LOW-LEVEL ATTACKS HEAVY DAMAGE TO AERO ENGINE FACTORY. BOMB BURSTS IN CENTRE OF STATION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 21. On Friday night the Royal Air Force struck-at Berlin, the Ruhr and the invasion portp. In the German capital, states an Air Ministry communique, many fires and explosions were ■ caused in an aero engine factory and in other parts of the target area. Aircraft arriving later stimulated the existing fires and started new ones. On the longest night of the year when Berlin, was covered with snow heavy, bombers were over the city both early and late. The attack was remarkable for the audacity with which some of the bombers came right over the house-tops, the machines flying at little more than 100 feet. During such low-level attacks it is easy to see what damage had been done and there was a vivid report from an aircraft which roared over the main railway station just below 1000 feet. The pilot saw a bomb burst in the very centre of the station. During the actual moment of the explosion the bomber had passed and the rear gunner looked back and saw the platform lying in ruins. The pilot then turned his machine and swooped down on a group of searchlights and a battery of guns. Both the front and rear gunners fired hundreds of rounds at point blank range and in the brilliant moonlight they saw the crews of the searchlights and anti-aircraft guns stagger and fall.