R.A.F. RAIDS ON GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 295, 16 December 1940, Page 6

R.A.F. RAIDS ON GERMANY

DOCKS AT BREMEN HIT SHIPBUILDING YARDS AT KIEL [By Telegraph—Frees Association—Copyright] Received Dec. 15, 6.40 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 14. Difficult weather conditions were experienced by British aircraft in an attack on Germany last night. An Air Ministry communique says:— “Aircraft of the Bomber Command made an attack on shipbuilding yards at Kiel and factories and other targets in the Bremen docks, and aerodromes in Holland were also bombed. “Aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked a submarine base at Bordeaux. “No British aircraft were lost in these operations.” Additional details of last night’s raids on Bremen were given by the Air Ministry news service, which says the town was almost entirely hidden by cloud when the heavy bombers came over early in the night. They had been detailed to attack railway, factories and warehouses near the harbour. Both incendiary and high explosives were dropped and after the attack the glow of strong fires penetrated and lit up the clouds. At Kiel heavy bombers raided docks and shipyards. The weather was as bad as at. Bremen, but the pilots made certain that many bombs fell on the target area. The attack on the U-boat base at Bordeaux was continued by the Coastal Command aircraft in a short destructive raid with heavy bombs. The first attacking pilot got a hit on big quayside buildings. His observer saw a succession of brilliant blue flashes along the dock wall lasting 15 seconds.

i The later stages of the raid were i even more spectacular. An explosion near the gates of one dock was followed by a dozen others along the ledge of the basin. When the Coastal [Command pilots turned for home the I submarine base was lit up by two fires I overhung by swirling clouds of smoke. Bomb Penetrates a Shelter. A bomb which the R.A.F. dropped on the Krupps works at Essen penetrated a shelter under the works and killed 400 workers and injured 1800. A recent bomb broke a water main in Berlin and simultaneously blocked a shelter which was flooded, drowning 700.

The British United Press correspondent on the German frontier says he is assured that these reports are authentic. They are certainly widely believed in Germany, where the facts of R.A.F. raids are spreading slowly among the population.