BOMBING OF REICH

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 5

BOMBING OF REICH

Fewer Night Raids Last Month WEATHER PROBLEM (By Telegraph. —Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received October 3, 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 2. It is estimated that the It.A.F. dropped a smaller weight of bombs on Germany in September than for any mouth since Aeril. says the “Daily Mail’s” aviation writer. The total for the mouth would probably not exceed 11.000 tons, compared with the peak of 10,000' tons in both August and July. ~ The weight of the Bomber Commands offensive would probably have been much -renter had the weather been mure favourable for night operations. One of the lessons to be learned from the air war last month is the time when all-weather night bombing will become possible. It is perhaps further off than is sometimes imagined. lhe daylight air offensive, however reached a new peak in September. Hundreds ot Allied planes ranged over enemy-occupied Europe almost daily with only feeble spasmodic resistance from the Luftwaffe. A United States Air Force spokesman said the enemy was forced to abandon forward aerodromes along a belt extending many miles inland from the coast.

Damage at Bochuin. Fires were still burning in Bochum many hours after Wednesday’s raid, according to reconnaissance pilots who flew over the city shortly after noon on Thursday. , , Bochum is the fourth largest city.m the Ruhr and produces a high proportion of the special steel used in the manufacture of hundreds of weapons, from aeroplane engines to big guns. In Lochum steel is made by three huge plants belonging to the United Steel Combine. Between them they turn out a million tons of steel and a million tons of pig iron annually. All three plants were hit during the attack. Photographs show that tn is attack was one of the most successful the Bomber Command has made on Bochum. The industrial damage was very heavy indeed. It is not yet possible to assess the whole damage, but it is known that a number of factories, some of which were of the first importance to Germany s war effort, were damaged. Railways ot great importance to Germany were also damaged.