CHANNEL PORTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 243, 15 October 1940, Page 5

CHANNEL PORTS

SURVEY OF DAMAGE

SHIPPING REDUCED AIR AND NAVAL ATTACKS | British Official Wireless, j Received Oct. 14. 5.5 p.m. RUGBY, Oct. 13. The following joint Admiralty and Air Ministry communique was issued at 4.15 p.m.:—“Air reconnaissance has been carried out over Cherbourg, which, as previously announced, was heavily bombarded both by heavy and light forces of the Royal Navy with the co-operation of the R.A.F. on Thursday night. Although it is not possible to give details of all the information obtained by the reconnaissance. it can be stated that there has been a considerable reduction of shipping at Cherbourg. Much damage has been done. In Petite Rade torpedoboats appear to have been damaged. “The Bassian Charles now only contains a few small vessels. The dry nocks and repair slips in the Bassin Napoleon have been damaged. A vessei moored alongside the Gare Maritime was still burning fiercely at the time of the reconnaissance and a fire was still burning in the entrepot on the east side of the inner harbour. Colonial infantry barracks near the outer harbour appear to have been •Severely damaged. The main seaplane at Chantereyne has been hit and seriously damaged.”

GERMAN MORALE

AFFECTED LOCALLY UNCANNY R.A.F. PRECISION Received Oct. 14. 6.5 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 13. Travellers arriving at Istanbul from 1 the Balkans say that five large merchantmen sank in Hamburg Harbour following an attack by British bombers. The damage to the harbour was enormous, and it can now be hardly used. The oil tanks burn continuously. Yugoslav workers at Hanover have asked their Government to repatriate them a.- they cannot stand the inferno of the R.A.F. bombings nightly. These and other witnesses comment on the uncanny precision of the British

bombers, but generally information concerning the effects of bombing are difficult to obtain, the districts affected being sealed from each other to prevent leakage of information. The effect of the work of the R.A.F. on the German morale, therefore, has been until now local and not general. A' visitor from Berlin states that the confidence of the people in the Fuhrer is still high, and they believe that the war will end before the winter. The Propaganda Minister has given the impression that London is i already a mass of ruins. It is thought that the disappointment which is ahead for the people may seriously affect their morale, for a second winter of war is apparently the most dismal prospect the population can imagine. ( British Official Wireless ? Received Oct. 14. 5.5 p.m. RUGBY. Oct. 13. Information reaching London from I reliable neutral sources suggest that the effect of the R.A.F. raids on military’ objectives in Berlin has been to shake severely the confidence of the pojhilation of Berlin, who have been assured many times, and by Field-] Marshal Goering himself, that no British aircraft would be permitted to reach Berlin. Berliners now realise that they must accept the presence of British aircraft overhead on any night as Inevitable as long as the war continues, and they are no longer being encouraged by the Nazi authorities to hope for a short war-