WIDE ACTIVITY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21250, 22 October 1940, Page 6

WIDE ACTIVITY

RAIDS ON CONTINENT MILITARY OBJECTIVES HIT DESTRUCTION TO PLANTS (Official Wireless) (Received Oct. 2°. 3.15 n.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 21 Oil refineries, storage plants, aluminium factories and naval dockyards were among the many targets i in Germany, in addition to Berlin, J successfully attacked last night by i the Royal Air Force. The oil plants raided were at , Gelsenkirchen and Wesseling, near Cologne. Large fires were started at j both targets with high explosives and j incendiary bombs. Aluminium works were the objec- i tives of two other raiding forces i which visited the Grevenbrough and j Lunen works. Grevenbrough was easily located j in the bright moonlight, and during I a raid lasting one and a-half hours J buildings in the factory area were i hit. Heavy explosions caused many , fires, giving off columns of- thick j black smoke, which later were in- j tensified by further attackers. A successful attack was made on i ■the Lunen factory, where fires and i explosions were so concentrated that j very heavy damage must have been j inflicted. A ground mist and slight haze * hampered the raiding force in a do- j tailed attack on the dockyard at Hamburg, but fires soon lit up the docks and sticks of high explosive ! bombs were seen to straddle one end , of the Blohm and Voss shipyards and j strike the quaysides and jetties. In an attack on the naval dock at j Wilhelmshaven heavy calibre bombs ■ struck and tires could be seen blazing in the dock. A number of other objectives in j Germany. including the Krupps j works at Essen, docks at Emden and j Dusseldorf, barge fleets in the j Dortmund-ems canal near Munster, j industrial plants in the Ruhr and \ rail communication between aero- j dromes were also attacked by heavy j bomber forces in the course of a j night of widespread activity. 14 Raids on Berlin In connection with the Royal Air > Force’s long raid on Berlin last night it is interesting to note that since the beginning of September the Royal Air Force has bombed Berlin on 14 occasions. These raids on the German capital represent 225 individual aircraft sorties, it has been revealed by a senior officer, who also stated that over 200 tons of bombs have been dropped on military objects in the Berlin area.