BLAST DAMAGE IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 192, 12 May 1944, Page 5

BLAST DAMAGE IN ENGLAND

Result Of Bombing On French Coast SERIES OF ATTACKS (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, May 10. People in English south coast towns again had a wakeful night due to explosions which made houses rock “as ■ if they were in the throes of an earthquake,” and heavy gunfire from the other side of the Channel again shook the towns late this afternoon. A “Daily Mail” correspondent at an unnamed English coastal town, referring to the effect of the explosions there, says that there is hardly a shop or house without some slight damage. Windows fell in, ceilings caved, crockery broke, and pictures fell. Shopkeepers found their window displays in chaos. Many people, on waking up, hurried to the shelters, thinking that an air raid was in progress. The R.A.F. bombers’ targets in France during the night included an aero-engine foundry and stamping plant at Gennevilliers, a suburb of Paris, and ball-bearing works at Annecy, in the Haute Savoie. The Exchange Telegraph agency’s aviation correspondent says that the R.A.F. launched a terrific attack on the French coast shortly before 4 a.m. today. It is believed that a concentrated attack was made in the Cape Gris-Nez area. The bombing was even heavier than earlier in the night. An observer on the English coast said he could feel the blast from tlie bombs across the Channel, hot air hitting him in the face. Paris radio reports that Allied planes attacked a suburb north-west of Paris. Incendiaries started great fires and caused considerable damage. Though today’s air offensive from Britain against Gerniany, France 3nd Belgium was not on the same massive scale as yesterday, it has been kept up all day long. The main attacks were, once more qii railways and airfields, with fighterbombers diving on a string of other targets, from coast batteries to German staff cars. Hundreds of fighters covered the attacks. American Marauders and Havocs dropped more than 450 tons of bombs on three railway centres and an airfield during the morning, and later in the day went out a second time. British medium and fighter-bombers went to France and Belgium. ' Daylight Targets. Approximately 100 Marauders made a very, strong attack against the railway yards at Creil, 25 miles north-east of Paris, this morning., Havocs first, and then Marauders, bombed the railway yards at Tournai, in Belgium, reporting good hits. Columns of smoke rose 12,000 feet when the Mons railway yards were hit. Two Marauders have not returned from these operations.' Thunderbolt . fighter-bombers later bombed a railway bridge at Mantes, the GasSicourt railway yard, and power plant at Valenciennes, and strafed an airfield north of Rheims. Bostons, * Mitchells and Typhoon fighter-bombers attacked other targets in France and Belgium. Spitfires, Mustangs and Typhoon fighters and fighter-bombers kept up the attacks against military targets in France all day. The Luftwaffe resisted the onslaught more vigorously than it has done lately. Three German fighters were shot down and §ve of our planes are missing from these operations. Marauders late this afternoon bombed a railway bridge near Rouen, railway yards at Roual and Tourcoing. and military objectives in the Pas de Calais area. After being grounded for two days owing to bad weather, American heavy bombers based in Italy flew over the Alps today to attack the Luftwaffe base at Wiener Neuktadt, mear Vienna. The enemy defended the area with fighters and intense anti-aircraft fire. Other Liberators today flew across the Adriatic to Yugoslavia to attack the rail centre of Knm, near the Dalmatian coast. Algiers radio announced late tonight that heavy bombers attacked Steyr, in Austria, today.