Great Air Raids

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXXI, Issue 9763, 27 April 1942, Page 3

Great Air Raids

. AAITCKS BY THE R.A.F. ,/. 4 'E3E-v! —*” " ENEMY CENTRES BATTERED if" • ! I BLOWS by day and night ■ *■s, LONG NON-STOP OFFENSIVE LONDON, April 26. Devastating air raids on ports anti industrial centres in Germany and occupied territory marked a non-stop day and night offensive by the Royal Air Force commencing on Thursday and continuing this morning. In two raids on Rostock, German Baltic port, on Thursday night and Friday night, British planes dropped 400 tons of bombs, blasting the Heinkel aircraft works and Neptune shipyards. Fire-bombs set flames roaring [ h through buildings wrecked by high explosives. A large force of bombers made a third raid on Rostock on Saturday night. * Flying across southern Germany on Saturday night British bombers attacked the, great Skoda armament works at Pilsen, Czecho-Slovakia. Other objectives in southern Germany .were also bombed on Saturday night. The docks at Dunkirk and aerodromes in enemy-occupied territory were alsr attacked. Five bombers are missing. A mass attack made on the seaport of Flushing, in Holland, and parts of northern France on Friday afternoon, was described as the Royal Air Force’s biggest single fighter offensive of the war. Following this, and commencing early on Saturday mornirg, six major offensive sweeps were made within 11 hours over France On Saturday night again British bombers were over enemy territory. Also, residents on the Kent coast saw a large force of British fighters heading in the direction of Calais and Dunkirk this morning.

Four bombers are reported missing from the first raid on Rostock, and two bombers and one fighter failed to return from the second raid. Nine fighters were lost in Friday afternoon’s great sweep, when five enemy aircraft were destroyed. The Saturday sweeps cost 15 fighters and one bomber, the enemy losing eight fighters. BATTLE OP BURMA THREE SEPARATE THRUSTS BY JAPANESE MANDALAY THE GOAL LONDON, April 25. It is authoritatively stated that the Japanese in Burma are believed to be making three separate thrusts. The

Chinese are now holding the Pinchaung River, north of Yenanyuang, and the British are a little more to the northward. Heavy fighting on the Sittang front is going on in the neighbourhood of Takton, while on the third front, at Karenni, the Japanese appear to have made a very considerable advance from Loikaw to the neighbourhood of Taunggyl, which is 100 miles .southeast of Mandalay,

Actions are taking place east nf Taunggyi, at Hopong and west of Taunggyi, near Shwenyaung, where the Chinese are reported to be successfully counter-attacking. This is considerably north of the fighting on the Sittang front and, if the Japanese succeed in pushing on, there will be danger to Chinese communications on the Sittang front.

JAPANESE AIR RAIDS ENEMY’S LOSSES IN ATTACK ON DARWIN ATTACKS ON PORT MORESBY CANBERRA, April 26.

The Japanese heavily raided DarWjin yesterday. It cost them eight bombers and three fighters, or onethird of the force then sent over. A communique issued from General D. McArthur’s headquarters state-' that the Allied planes brilliantly intercepted the raiders, and shot down the eight enemy bombers and three fighters with negligible losses to themselves.

Port Moresby, in New Guinea, and Tulagl, in the Solomon Islands, were also raided yesterday. Over Port Moresby 15 Japanees machines were successfully intercepted and damage to the town was slight, Eight Japanese aircraft attacked Tulagi, but caused practically no damage. Allied headquarters in Australia reported that an increase in the frequency of smallscale Japanese raids on Port Moresby was revealed in Friday’s communique. Allied planes were keeping up systematic attacks on Rabaul,

RUSSO-GERMAN STRUGGLE

DIVE-BOMBING ATTACKS BY THE ENEMY STARAYA-RUSSA SECTOR LONDON, April 25. For four days German dive-bomb-ers have been trying to smash the Russian iron ring round Staraya Russa, says a Stockholm report. An offensive southward of Lake Ilmen is designed primarily to relieve the 6th Army, but military observers in Moscow regard the attacks as the beginning of the overture to the summer offensive.

Moscow claims that the Russians still retain air supremacy, while it is particularly noticeable that the Luftwaffe’s striking power has diminished compared with last June. On the other hand, a Berlin spokesman declared that units of the trapped 16th Army pierced the Russian lines and re-established contact with the main German forces.

The Vichy radio announced that the German spring offensive in Russia has already begun with ceaseless attacks and counter-attacks on the central front, and violent battles on the Bryansk, and Kharkov sectors.'