BERLIN BLASTED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 208, 3 September 1943, Page 5

BERLIN BLASTED

FURTHER R.A.F. ATTACK GREAT DAMAGE DONE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Reed. 7 p.m. London, Sept. 1. British bombers made another heavy attack on Berlin last night. Il was concentrated into 45 minutes, and the indications are that great damage was done. Forty-seven bombers arc missing. A great weight of high-ex-plosive anti incendiary bombs wac dropped. There was broken cloud at a. low level over the German capital, and this made it difficult, for the raiding pilots to see the results of their attack, but large fires were observed, and it is certain that great damage was done. A big force of German night-fight-ers came up to grapple with the bombers before they reached their target, and also over Berlin itself, but they were unable to prevent the concentration of the attack. Several of the fighters were destroyed in combat. Later reports say that the bombers

I went to Berlin in hundreds and had to fight their way there and back. There were (plenty of searchlights, and guns were in action all along the route. There were so many nightfighters that the bombers' gunners could not rest, for a moment. The bombers were over the city at about 11.30 p.m. Night-fighters were evtiy where, and the sky was lit up with flares, bursting shells, the glow of fires, and searchlights. The Germans tried new tactics. They tried to trap the bombers in the light of flares grouped in clusters, nut it worked both ways. There were many air combats all over the sky, and when the night-fighters flew into the flares they were shot down in the glare. The last big raid on Berlin was eight nights ago, when over 1700 tons of bombs were dropped, and the attacking force lost 58 planes. Since then Mosquitoes have been attacking the city. In addition to being the capital city, Berlin is an important industrial area, and among other plants contains the Siemen works, with the largest electrical equipment in the world. While the main war industries are in the suburbs, in the heart of the city there arc big railway stations and the offices of the German Government. Last night's operations included intruder attacks on France and the Low Countries, and from these one fighter did not come back. Yesterday's daylight operations from Britain included raids on three airfields and intruder attacks over northern France. Between them, the Allied planes shot down 10 enemy aircraft. Four were added during the afternoon, when lighters came to grips in dog-fights. The R.A.F. lost two bombers and three fighters during the day. On the east coast last night German raiders dropped a few bombs which caused some damage, but no one was seriously hurt. A LANE OFFLARES ENEMY’S NEW DEVICE Recd. 7.15 p.m. Rugby, Sept. 1. “The gunners were reporting enemy fighters, some with lights on and some without, from the moment we crossed the enemy coast," a wing commander reported after the Berlin raid. ‘‘ll wasn’t until we got to the capital that I personally saw any of the new flares the Germans are using. About a dozen were dropped at a time. They fell slowly from a. good height and burnt with a brilliant white light. They were coming down in parallel lines, and I saw at least six. My navigator at one time counted about 40, going down even more slowly than a leaf falls through the sky. The Germans were obviously using them to illuminate us as we went in, and the whole aim of the enemy aircraft in dropping them was to form a lane of flares through which we would have to pass on our way to the target.”— 8.0.W. NAZIS SCRAPE UP PLANES Recd. 6.50 p.m. London, Sept. 1. The Daily Express aviation writer says teat the Germans apparently scraped up every available nightfighter to defend Berlin. About a thousand must have been operating on the 400-mile route over enemy territory and over Berlin.