TREMENDOUS MUNITION EXPLOSIONS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 189, 9 May 1944, Page 5

TREMENDOUS MUNITION EXPLOSIONS

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 7. All three R.A.F. attacks on targets in France last night .were made while the ■moon was up, and in excellent visibility. Though there were some interceptions, especially near Au'bigne, and Mantes, the main fighter packs did not reach the bombers. Those night fighters which did arrive at Mantes after the attack started were extremely persistent, and pursued the bombers on the way home. As one pilot made his bombing run over the yard he saw a large railway building casting a long shadow. The next moment the shadow had gone. The building had been wiped away. The Lancaster crews who bombed ammunition dumps told a dramatic story of huge explosions. A pilot who was in the Anbigne attack said that his aircraft bumped up and down though it was flying many thousands of feet above the dump. Flames from one explosion shot 2000 feet into the air. Smoke then rolled up from the dump, and a quarter of an .hour later it had risen to 12,000 feet. Crews who attacked the dump at Sable-sur-Sarthe said that the whole target seemed to come up at them. The attack was over in ten minutes. Green and red ammunition was flying into the air like sparks, and some was sent 4000 feet into the air. When the raider left the whole target was in flames.