ANOTHER HEAVY RAID ON LILLE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 15, 13 October 1942, Page 5

ANOTHER HEAVY RAID ON LILLE

Shell Works Battered

FIERCE ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE ENCOUNTERED

(British Official Wireless.) (Received October 12, 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, October 11

Nearly 500 lighters and the strongest force of bombers yet sent out on a daylight raid took part in today’s sweep over northern France. At least five enemy lighters were destroyed by our fighters. The Fives-Lille shell and engineering works which was the main target for more than 100 Flying Fortresses and Liberator bombers, Is one of the most important in France, where locomotives and other heavy engineering equipment are made. The large battery of Fortresses and Liberators made attacks with squadrons of fighters circling round in protection. Spitfire pilots protecting the withdrawal of the bombers reported that German flak from the French coast was 30 intense that at .one time it looked like a cloud 2000 feet thick. [Forty-eight enemy aircraft were destroyed by Fortresses and Liberators which attacked a steel and locomotive works at Lille on Friday morning.] Squadrons of fighters also swept the Dieppe-Neufehatel-Abbeville area. Further north, many fighter squadrons were circling round from Gravelines to Mardyck and Dunkirk, and inland to Ypres and Dixmude. Still more swept up and down the coast from Dunkirk to the Dutch islands. It was a United Nations’ operation in every sense: of .he word, for squadrons with pilots, from the Dominions, the colonies, occupied countries, together with the American Air Force, took part. Several places in western Germany, including Hanover, were attacked in daylight today. Three fighters and two bombers are missing.

In Britain, there was a sharp raid on a north-east coast town tonight. A school was set on fire, but the outbreak was soon controlled. There was heavy antiaircraft fire.