SMASHING NAZI KEY CITIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 229, 24 June 1944, Page 7

SMASHING NAZI KEY CITIES

Even Bigger Blows Imminent UNIFIED ATTACK (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received June 23, 10 p.m.) LONDON, June 23. “Bigger blows are imminent against Berlin and other key German cities,” declared a high-ranking Eighth Air Force spokesman at Allied headquarters. “Now that the Allied beach-head in Normandy is secure, we can return to the original job of smashing German manufacturing capacity, wrecking his lines of communication, and destroying his ability and will to fight. Night and day bombing will be knit into one great onslaught, which, combined, can do twice the damage of single attacks. “It won’t be a picnie in the skies over Germany. We can go where we will, but the Luftwaffe is still formidable. Ine Germans have been unable to increase the Luftwaffe and are conserving, its remaining strength. We have cut into its first-line strength and it is using up reserves. The Germans at present are fighting more formidably because there is reason to believe they are using only their best pilots in the fewer planes available to them. “The raid yesterday against Berlin and the oil refinery north of Gelsenkirchen was a tough run, because we were attacking the Germans’ toughest points —their capital and their oil which must be defended to the death. “The Germans several months ago put up 600 planes to intercept daylight raids. Now they are sending up only about 200, but their defences have unproved, because they have better planes, new tactics and tremendously greater mobility. They call up planes from Munich to defend Berlin. “Though the Germans have no new fighters, they have improved, the general existing types. American losses were originally 75 per cent, caused by fighters and 25 per cent, by flak, but the proportion is now about 50-50. with the overall loss substantially less.” CROSS-CHANNEL RAIDS Great Forces Out All Day LONDON, June 22. The trans-channel air offensive continued All this evening, completing u day in which great forces of Allied planes were out morning, afternoon, and evening. Bombers went to northern France, and a large number of fighters, including Thunderbolts and Mustangs, joined in the evening attacks. After a warmer day, with more sum-mer-like conditions, the sky was clear at dusk and the outlook was more settled than it has been for the past week in the Straits of Dover. Conditions on the other side of (he Channel may be expected to become better. Visibility is excellent, with the French coast showing at times. After providing protection for heavy bombers attacking the Pas de Calais installations today. Mustangs and , Thunderbolts strafed and bombed, military targets in France. In strafing attacks against two marshalling yards and railway and highway traffic, thev destroyed or damaged 55 railcars, five locomotives, and 12 trucks. Thunderbolts dive-bomb-ed three aerodromes, three marshalling yards, and destroyed or damaged two locomotives, 10 railcars, and five barges. Allied fighters did not encounter any enemy planes. One Allied plane is missing. Visual Bombing. LONDON, June 23. Strong formations of Fortresses and Liberators escorted by medium forces of Thunderbolts and Mustangs last night attacked a variety of enemy military installations from the French coast to Paris, including the day’s second attack on flying-bomb platforms in the Pas de Calais area. The targets included aerodromes, bridges, transformer stations, railway workshops, sidings, and fuel tanks, and also marshalling yards at Lille and Ghent. All the bombing was visual. The fighters destroyed three enemy aircraft and the bombers destroyed three. Ten bombers and nine fighters are missing from today’s operations. Six separate formations of Marauders and Havocs last evening penetrated six to 60 miles behind the German lines, attacking a German military headquarters at Baron, railway yards at Armentieres and St. Quentin, and also three fuel dumps in a forest 60 miles west of Caen. As darkness was falling last night Thunderbolt fighter-bombers attacked gunposts on the island of Alderney. It was not till they dropped they bomb-loads and started strafing the German barracks that the enemy anti-aircraft batteries went into action.