COLOGNE BATTERED

Waikato Times, Volume 130, Issue 21689, 27 March 1942, Page 4

COLOGNE BATTERED

WORST ATTACK OF WAR SUCCESSFUL RAIDS 1 TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION (Omciai Wireless) (Received March 27, 2 p.m.) RUGBY, March 26 Cologne on the night of March 13 suffered almost certainly its worst attack of the war. This is proved by a succession of clear, though small-scale, photographs taken in daylight. These reveal even more damage than had been expected after the examination of night photographs, which by no means covered every phase of the concentrated attack. In the Nippes district, the northern and largely industrial part of the town, there was a direct hit with a large bomb on the railway yard, and waggons were thrown off the lines at the south end of this yard. Several railway workshops were completely burnt out and others damaged by high explosives. The damage here covers 75,000 square yards, occupied entirely by workshops. East of these workshops an exceptionally heavy bomb completely destroyed buildings once covering 600 square yards and all around was much damage from a blast hit. The ouildings of the Franz Clouth rubber works, which produced tyres, tubes and other war material, were knocked out. The works had a spread of 168,000 square yards, and a large part was actually razed to the ground® Several sheds were gutted by fire and many others were badly damaged. On the same side there were six points of substantial damage, all the result of direct hits on closely-built areas. A little to the north on this side of the river another of the heaviest bombs brought down a comer block and smashed several other buildings. Trail of Destruction Southwards into the main city area the trail of destruction continues. South-west of the main railway station there were direct hits on large blocks, with additional damage by fire. A thousand yards west of the cathedral a heavy bomb largely destroyed a block of buildings which covered 16,000 square yards, with much blast damage a long way beyond this limit. A smaller block immediately south of the city’s principal square has been so completely smashed that the crater of a bomb can be seen where a block once stood. The buildings around have been wrecked and further south of the main square another bomb has destroyed several buildings in the vicinity of Hohenzollern Bridge and along the banks of the river. Large and small buildings covering many thousands of square yards are shown in the photographs to have been destroyed and whole streets are shown to be uninhabitable.