RAID OVER GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 64, 18 March 1943, Page 5

RAID OVER GERMANY

AIRMEN’S EXPERIENCES ENGINES OUT OF ACTION Recd. 6 p.m. London, March 16. The engine of a Halifax bomber fell out of its nacelle when FlightSergeant Maurice Marment, of Kilbiritfe, landed after an encounter with a night fighter. Marment is one of many New Zealanders who have shown grit and determination in recent raids over Germany. Another was Squadron - Leader Keith F Thiele, D.F.C., of Christchurch, who carried on and bombed Nuremburg, although one engine had caught fire shortly after the take-off. Maiment had bombed Stuttgart and was returning home when the night tighter attacked, hitting the propellers ol two oi the four engines. Marment skilfully dodged the night fighter, but one engine stopped immediately. He carried on towards home and during the nex» half hour all seemed well, when suddenly the starboard outer engine petered out and a few minutes later the outer port engine began to run badly. It was difficult to maintain height with only two engines. The wireless operator sent out an S.O.S. and the crew jettisoned everything movable and prepared to bale out over the Channel, but Marment (lew on umuffled. He was helped by the flight engineer’s skill in distributing the petrol. The Halifax ran into bad weather over England and Marment had to land on a strange airfield. Just as lie touched down the engine which had been running badly fell out of the nacelle, but Marment brought the skidding Halifax to a stop without injury to the crew. Thiele was captain of a Lancaster. He was 15 minutes on his way to Nuremburg when the port inner engine ceught fire. He stopped it and the air current blew out the flames. Thiele rapidly ceiculated what petrol was available for the three remaining engines for he would have to rev. them up ro maintain height. He decided that if he was going to reach Nuremburg it would be wise to jettison some part of the bomb load. * He kept a 4000 pounder and some incendiaries, and with the lighter load maintained height. He arrived over the target to his time schedule and reported that his bombs burst on the target.

RAID ON KRUPPS’ WORKS HEAVY DAMAGE REPORTED

Reed. 6.30 p.m. Rugby, March 16. It is now known that when Bomber Command attacked Essen for the second time within a week (in the 1000-ton raid on the night of March 12) Krupps’ armament and engineering works were again heavily damaged. In the last attack 34 shops in the Krupps works were affected, 13 of them severaly, by the concentrated bombing. Great destruction was. done in the northern section of the works, which was comparatively little damaged in the earlier raid on the night of March 5. In this part of the factory locomotives and rolling stock are made and owing to the acute shortage of rolling stock on the Continent the new damage will certainly be a heavy blow to the enemy's war potential. A vast locomotive building shop, the roof of which showed only slight damage after the raid on March 5, was severely damaged by fire over the whole area. Outside Krupps there is much new damage to industrial buildings, houses and huts.—B.O.W.

RAILWAY WORKSHOPS

RAIDED BY MOSQUITOS Recd. 11 p.m. London, March 17. Mosquitos yesterday afternoon bombed railway workshops at Padenborn. One is missing. This operation entailed a return flight of 800 miles, of which 500 were over German and German-occupM territory. The Mosquitos split up into two formations as they approached the town. The first formation bombed from a low level. The other climbed and, as soon as the first attack was over, dived down on the target. Several bombs exploded square on the main workshop, from which smoke billowed up 3000 to 4000 feet.