HEAVILY RAIDED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 127, 1 June 1942, Page 5

HEAVILY RAIDED

Substantial Damage To Paris

Factories

WORK Ol* R.A.F. BOMBERS British Official Wireless. RUGBY, May 31. A Vichy message says the Royal Air Force* on Friday night destroyed the Goodrich rubber factory in a Paris suburb. They also razed the Gennevilliers power station which supplies the factories in the whole industrial area north-west of Paris. Forty persons were killed and 100 injured in the attack, which lasted from 2 a.m. until 4.20 a.m. During this raid the R.A.F. also attacked the Gnome-Rhone aeroengine works at Gennevilliers, which was heavily raided on two nights during April. Considerable damage was done. This raid is considered to be one of the heaviest of the war. Three Allied aircraft are missing.

The importance to the enemy of Gnome-Rhone works and the other factories beside it is clearly shown by the new defences which the British bomber crews found there on Friday night. The defences consisted chiefly of light anti-aircraft guns, but there were heavy guns as well and many searchlights. Night fighters were also seen.

The attack, says the British Air Ministry news service, began in good weather, but the bombers had to search for their target between patches of scurrying clouds. The crews pinpointed the works from the bends of the River Seine and other conspicuous landmarks. Then they flew low in the face of flak to make accurate bombing.

*" "We circled over Paris, saw the Gnome-Rhone works clearly in the moonlight, and made our run," said one pilot. "The factory was dead in the bomb-sight when the bombs were released. The reflection of the bursting bombs was startingly clear in the river." Laval visited the scene of the raid and saw widespread devastation, says a Vichy message received later. The casualties had reached 80 killed and 200 injured. Two hundred houses were destroyed in one suburb alone.