STRUCK BY ROYAL AIR FORCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1941, Page 5

STRUCK BY ROYAL AIR FORCE

From Norway to Italian Alps DARING DAYLIGHT RAID ON CALAIS DESTRUCTION IN CHANNEL PORTS AND ITALY As part of widely extended raids on enemy-occupied Channel ports and invasion bases, and on objectives extending from Norway to the Italian Alps, the 8.8. C. reports daring and successful daylight attacks on Calais and on enemy aerodromes. A communique states that in the Calais region these attacks resulted in the destruction of military installations and patrol vessels. In the same area, three enemy aircraft were shot down and others were destroyed on the ground. In their attack on Calais the British bombers were powerfully escorted by fighters. Very few enemy fighters were encountered and none of the British aircraft are missing. At Brest on Thursday night, aircraft of the Coastal Command completed the destruction begun in two earlier raids. Shipping and docks were heavily attacked and it is observed that the efficiency of the port and its importance to the enemy

have been much reduced. The pilots had no difficulty in picking f out their objectives, and in most instances in actually seeing - the results of their bombing.

On Wednesday night, British bombers made Naples and Palermo the objectives of particularly strong raids. At Naples a battleship, merchant shipping, docks and the railway station were attacked with successful results. In the harbour, one bomb fell on or very close to the stern of a battleship of the Vittorio (35,000 ton) class, causing a dull red glow. Other bombs caused fires on a large merchant vessel and along the waterfront from the dry dock to the jetties. Bombs were dropped on the quayside and the railway station and line received direct hits. A gasometer was set on fire, which was followed by a series of explosions.

At Palermo enemy shipping suffered, bombs falling in the basin between the northern mole and the jetty. Widespread attacks were made on German oil supply plants by the R.A.F. on Thursday night, many fires and explosions being caused. At one of the most important synthetic oil plants the whole factory was blotted out by smoke from burning oil. On the way back, one of the British bombers met a Junkers 88. The British machine got in a quick burst of fire and the German plane crashed to the ground and burst into flames.