SHIPPING ABLAZE AT INVASION PORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 226, 23 September 1940, Page 7

SHIPPING ABLAZE AT INVASION PORTS.

BRITISH RAIDS. Bombers Strike Hard At German Targets. British Official Wireless. (Reed. 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 22. Later information of the raids on Germany show that the DortmundEms aqueduct was bombed for the second night in succession, and other successful attacks were made on rail communication centres and aerodromes over a wide area of enemy territory. Dunkirk port, which had been already heavily damaged in previous night attacks, was subjected to three separate raids, each of about one hour's duration. In the first, which began at 8.30 p.m., direct hits were scored in several dock basins. A searchlight was put out | by machine-gun fire, and large fires, which broke out after the bombing, could still be seen when the attacking aircraft were well out to sea on the homeward journey. In the second attack a stick of Iwinlw exploded across a fleet of 50 barges, which were seen lying in one liasin. Other sticks straddled the main basin and burst near the sides of the approach channel. The third raid took place in the early hours of Saturday morning, and was directed mainly against a concentration of some 50 ships moored in numbers two and three docks.

Attacking through gaps in the clouds, the raiders laid bombs across the basins and adjoining canal, in which more ships are lying, and started a number of large fires on tb«> quaysides. Big Fires at Vital Ports. At Calais a cloud bank across the harbour at 3000 ft hamj>ered the attack, and one pilot spent a iiour and a half in the vicinity of the target awaiting an opportunity to bomb. Earlier attackers, taking advantage of occasional gaps in the clouds, scored hits in t-he docksides and one side of the entrance channel. Shortly before midnight, a line of fires was seen burning strongly along the jetty between the tidal harbour and the ««it basins.

Barges and shipping in Boulogne liarbour were repeatedly attacked in a series of sorties, which began at 11 p.m. on Friday and ended at 4.30 a.m. on Saturday. Bombs, burst on the southern j arm of the entrance channel, along the | harbour wall, and among a fleet of j barges in a basin. Other aircraft scored hits on quaysides to the east of the | Loubct Basin and near the main harbour, the explosions of the bombs bein? , followed by fires. A number of shins j at anchor in the outer harbour were also ,' attacked, but low cloud and rain pre- | vented observation of the results. I At Ostend an attack on the harbour was carried out in face of inten->- an?: ! aircraft and machine-gun lir,. and a l«al loon barrage, which was at a ureal height above the dock-. Itnn-.bing in shallow dives, which at lime* brought them t.i within l.'.ntti- • •: liic ground, tlt - raiders s.-.,i,..l hit- ..n ; ■■.• d.-ks. wlurn-. and lock ; ate- and .-•:.:"!!•.! the ■•ut'-i harbour, the main w< -• and a la'_dock north of the Bar-in dc Uia.-sc. Several large fire* were starti-d ai<m_' the dockside buildings, and a direct hi" is bplieved to have been -r.,rt-d on a large supply ship uii which a stick of j bombs was dropped from a low level- j

Train and Factory Hit. Railway yards at Hamra, Ehrang, Krefeld. Mannheim and Soest were also bombed, and a supply train travelling; towards Munster was attacked from SOOft and hit by two heavy calibre bombs, one of which exploded on the front <f the train and the other to the rear. Fragments of this train shot up as high in the aid as the attacking aircraft. Amongst the many aerodromes attacked was the seaplane base on the island of Texel, which was heavily bombed. The former civil airport of Jersey w; ; also raided. A large factory near Maastricht. strongly defended bV both light and. heavy anti-aircraft batteries, was bombed and set ablaze, the fire being visible 50 miles away. The heavy bomber responsible for this successful attack was hit many times in the wings and fuselage, but no vital part was damaged, and the aircraft was brought safely home.