R.A.F. RAIDS ON TRANSPORT

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23976, 17 June 1943, Page 5

R.A.F. RAIDS ON TRANSPORT

TARGETS IN OCCUPIED EUROPE NIGHT FIGHTERS MET OVER OBERHAUSEN (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. June 16. Transport-busting raids were carried out by the Royal Air Force over occupied Europe yesterday. Airfields, war factories, barges, and locomotives ; were among targets attacked in 1 France, Belgium, and Holland. Oberhausen, in the Ruhr, the main : target for Royal Air Force heavy ; bombers on Monday night, is an important iron and steel centre between : Duisburg and Essen, Oberhausen is roughly the fifth most important indus- ; trial town in the Ruhr, next on the list after Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg, i and Bochum. The moon was nearly full, making night fighter weather, and the enemy was up in strength. There were many combats. One Lancaster was attacked by at least four Junkers 88’s. The gunners beat off all the fighters and the pilot went on to make a steady bombing run. Another Lancaster was approached by two Junkers 88’s near the Dutch coast. Only one of the two attacked, and it was hit and went into a ( vertical dive. Anti-aircraft opposition was strong, but the bombing was ac- ' curate and concentrated. ! Intense cold, with ice forming on the ] aircraft, was at first encountered, but i over Oberhausen conditions were bet- i ter, although cloud made observation ' of the full results difficult. Large fires 1 were started among Oberhausen’s industrial objectives, which cover 500 < acres. , Royal Air Force intruders were out i over the Low Countries and northern < France on Monday night, plastering warehouses, trains, and other objectives. Royal Air Force fighters and fighterbombers on Tuesday attacked shipping off Cherbourg Peninsula and railway targets near Dieppe. Two aircraft are missing. FINNISH VOLUNTEER | BATTALION 1 1 TRANSFER TO MURMANSK J SECTOR REFUSED 1 (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, June 15. 1 Marshal Mannerheim has refused a T German demand that a battalion of 1 Finnish Waffen S.S. volunteers who recently returned to Finland after 1 two years’ service on the Eastern ( Front should be sent to northern Fin- 1 land to fight under the command of General Dietl, whose troops hold the Murmansk sector,” says the Stockholm correspondent of “The Times.” “The Finns countered this proposal by incorporating the battalion into the Finnish Army. "General Dietl’s troops total about 150,000, and for this reason the addition of a Finnish battalion could not have had military importance. The ( German move is thus interpreted as naving been aimed at tieing Finland closer to Germany. . “Marshal Mannerheim also recently r prohibited a visit by a party of Ger- r man journalists to the Karelian front. s In spite of these signs that the Finns ( are trying to avoid deepening their j entanglement with the Germans, there q is no sign or talk of a separate s peace." t

Lord Burnham Dead.—The death has occurred of Lord Burnham, aged 79. grandson of the founder of the "Daily Telegraph.” The new baron is his only son, Major-General E. F. Lawson. Director of Public Relations at the War Office, who before the war was general manager of the “Daily Telegraph." He commanded an artillery battery in France in 1940. London, June 15.