Berliners Awake Most Of Night

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 230, 27 September 1940, Page 7

Berliners Awake Most Of Night

POUNDING BY R.A.F. Longest Attack, Casualties And Heavy Damage Admitted

(United Press Association.—Copyright.— Rec. 12.30 pjn.) LONDON, September 26. The Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security, in a communique, state that strong forces of bomber* attacked military objectives in Berlin and Kiel last night and also invasion bases in enemy-occupied territory. The Associated Press Berlin correspondent states that the longest raid by the Royal Air Force kept Berliners in their chilly shelters most of the night. The raiders stayed over industrial suburbs, except for two waves which flew over the centre of the city. No bombs were dropped and no fires started in the central district. In Berlin informed circles state that the R.A.F. raid last night destroyed eight blocks of flats and killed two and wounded five civilians. R.A.F. are reported to have raided northern and western Germany, three persons being killed. "The enemy continued its terrorising activity against German civilians, but caused no military damage, either in north or western Germany or in Berlin," says a Berlin communique. "However, again there were a number of dead and wounded among civilians." Important Objectives Attacked. A British official wireless message says that last night's long air raid on Berlin is described in an Air Ministry bulletin: "From soon after 10 p.m. until the early hours of this morning," it says, "heavy bombers of the R.A.F. kept up a series of attacks on important military objectives in and around Berlin. "Four separate attacks within an hour were made on the Klingenberg power station in the heart of the industrial section to the east of the city. This station, known as the Gross Draftwerk Klingenberg, has an output capacity of 300,000 Kilowatts and is the power supply source of some of the city's largest industrial concerns. Sticks of heavy calibre bombs burst on and around the station, followed by the outbreak of fire. "The west power station, two miles, south of Tegel See, which had already been heavily damaged in previous raids, was attacked and a large fire started. "Salvoes of high explosive bombs were dropped on the Schoneberg railway yards, three miles south-west of the centre of the city, on the main railway junction near the Charlottenburg district, one of the chief residential quarters of the city. "In the attack on Berlin's main airport of Tempelhof a line of bombs was laid across the north part of the aerodrome and the nearby railway sidings were also bombed. "Another raider, which arrived over the east outskirts of the city six. minutes before midnight, cruised above the industrial district for 20 minutes searching for its target under heavy fire from ground batteries. After five parachute flares had been released the target, the munition factory at Rudersdorf, 1 7 miles east of Berlin,, was located and bombed, and a fire was seen to break out."