RAF RAIDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 5

RAF RAIDS

DEFENDERS FOOLED

FIGHTERS LEAVE OPEN DOOR TO STETTIN Reed. 6.30 p.m. Rugby, Jan. 6. Alarmed at the danger to Berlin, the Luftwaffe again sent lighter packs to defend the capital last night, leaving the door wide open for a great lorce of Lancasters, with a smaller number of Halifaxes, to get through to Stettin. Judging from what happened, said a R.A.t. station commander, the Germans become so rattled whenever bombers approach that Berlin comes first and the rest a long way behind. Over 1000 tons of bombs were dropped on Stettin. The Germans seemed hopelessly confused by a light force ol Mosquitoes which bomber Berlin a quarter of an hour before the attack on Stettin which is under 100 miles from Berlin, and almost at any poiri in the last stages of the journey the main force might have turned and made tor the capital. German fighters started to arrive over Stettin as the attack finished. The bombers had brilliant moonlight over the target. Pathfinders had I dropped visual markers, illuminating the target almost as brilliantly as in daylight and then laid target indicators. “The flak was insufficient to interfere with the bombing and Stettin was left well alight,” said a pilot. “All lires seemed to be in the middle of the target area and the glow on the clouds could be seen over 150 miles away.”—B.O.W. BOMBER’S PARADISE OTHER NIGHT RAIDS Recd. 6 pm. London, Jan. 6. One of the first arrivals over Stettin said he could see shops, warehouses, streets, houses, and even ships. He called it a bomb-aimer’s paradise. Mosquitoes were over western Germany and northern France last night as well as raiding Berlin and Stettin. Fifteen aircraft are missing. R.A.F. escorted bombers and fighterbombers attacked targets in northern France this morning. Three enemy lighters were destroyed. Two of ours are missing.

The Press, Association’s aviation correspondent says that Stettin is Germany’s chief seaport in the Baltic for supply to the armies on the Russian front, and also a centre of shipbuilding, machinery, chemicals, cement, and oil refining. The last heavy raid was last April, on the night of Hitler’s birthday, when a large force devastated the industrial heart of the town and extensively damaged the docks. The latest raid has added significance in view of the Germans’ serious position on the Russian front.

A small force of Flying Fortresses yesterday shattered the vital Bauer and Schaurte factory near Dusseldorf, producing about half the high-grade nuts and bolts used in the German war industry.

The British United Press correspondent at a U.S.A.A.F. bomber station says the Fortresses did not start out to bomb the factory. They found it through a gap in the clouds after an unsuccessful attempt to bomb the assigned targets.