FOGGIA BLITZED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 203, 28 August 1943, Page 5

FOGGIA BLITZED

IMPORTANT ITALIAN RAIL JUNCTION DAMAGING ALLIED BLOW •By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Recd. 7 p.m. London, Aug. 26. Allied aircraft made a tremendous onslaught yesterday on the airfields and railway yards at Foggia, the great railway junction in south-east-ern Italy. Three distinct waves of Allied air- ! craft struck this blow, which was one of the most damaging in the air offensive against Italy. The biggest force of Lightning twin-engined fighters ever sent out against a single target went in at tree-top height and strafed the airfield. Liberators from the Middle East bombed the marshalling yards, and Fortresses gave the airfields another pounding. Twenty-six enemy fighters were shot down in combat and scores of others were destroyed or damaged on the ground. A correspondent says that high officials at Allied headquarters describe the combined raid as a complete success. Another report says it is regarded as one of the most successful surprise air attacks of the war. The Lightnings caught hundreds of enemy airmen on the ground, and mowed them down as they ran for cover. The enemy had not time to send up fighters when the first wave flew in. They tried to interfere by firing rifles and revolvers, and even threw stones, so low were the planes. When a second wave went over five enemy aircraft had got into the air. and when the Fortresses went over between 60 and 100 planes had been sent up. Of these 15 were shot down by the Fortresses and three more by the fighter escort. On the way back to base the Lightnings shot up a troop train, causing heavy casualties. There are ten or eleven satellite airfields at Foggia, and a correspondent says they are as important to the defence of southern Italy as those at Gerbini were to the defence of Sicily. The Fortresses met with strong opposition, and with their escort shot down a number of the enemy planes. Seven enemy machines were destroyed by Liberators attacking the marshalling yards a few miles away. The Liberators scored direct hits on a bridge and warehouses and blew up a goods train and an anti-aircraft position. Last night R.A.F. Wellingtons attacked th? railway yards at the naval and seaplane base at Taranto, and 100 miles to the south across the Gulf of Taranto R.A.F. Halifaxes and Liberators went for railway targets at Cotrone, where many fires were started. A correspondent says that in a day in which we hit the Axis very hard and used hundreds of aircraft to do it, we lost only 15 olanes.