ENEMY PORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 224, 20 September 1940, Page 8

ENEMY PORTS.

I RELENTLESS BLOWS. Bombers Of R.A.F. Giving No Quarter. British" Official Wireless. (Reed. 1.30, p.m.) • EUGBY, Sept. 19. Continuing their relentless hammering of the enemy's Channel ports, bomber squadrons of the Koyal Air Force last night again attacked shipping concentrations, docks and harbour installations from Flushing, in the north, to Le Havre, in the southwest. Lβ Havre was singled out for the night's heaviest bombardment. Attacking in relays a' strong force of heavy bombers kept up. an almost continuous aseault upon harbours, docks and shipping for close on five hours. Many tons of high explosive bombs and great quantities of incendiary bombs were unloaded on each target in the face of fierce opposition from the ground defences. One of the earlier raiders attacked from low level beneath a cloud. As its first stick of heavy bombs fell across the dock, there was seen the white flash of a terrific explosion, followed immediately after by a second smaller explosion, which appeared to come either from a ship moored alongside the Baein De Maree or from a large warehouse on the quayside. A great fire which grew out of the second explosion quickly spread, and could be seen still blazing strongly by the bomber's crew when they were 50 miles away on their return journey. When the following aircraft pressed home their attacks, sticks of high explosive boml>e were seen to burst along the quayside of the Basin De Maree, across the docks of the Quai De Saigon, and to straddle the Basin Ballot from ; the north-east to* the south-west. Fire Among Shipping. Fire soon broke out and spread among the shipping massed in- the Basin De Maree and in the dry dock near the Quai de Saigon. A stick of bomb* was dropped across the dock from such low level that the violence of the explosion shook the crew of the attacking aircraft. By 11 p.m. fires were seen raging in many parts of the harbour. A large ship alongside the quay was burning strongly, and a 7000-ton ship about a mile north of Honfleur was seen to be ablaze, the flames lighting up a bank of low cloud which hung over the docks and the town. Relays of aircraft continued the bombardment until the early hours of the morning. Again and again docks and ships alongside were straddled with sticks of high explosive bombs.

Other invasion bases at Flushing, Boulogne, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Antwerp and Zeebrugge were also heavily attacked {luring the night, while other sections of the R.A.F. force, concentrating on rail communication centres in Germany, bombed the goods yards at Mannheim, Krofeld, Ham in, Osnabruck, Ehrang and Brussels.

Aircraft of the Coastal Command attacked a convoy off Borkum. A direct hit was registered on an enemy destroyer. Other Coastal Command aircraft attacked . tlie port of Cherbourg, shipping off the Dutch coast, and the aerodrome of Decooy. Seven R.A.F. aircraft are missing.