LAUNCHING SITES IN CHERBOURG

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 233, 29 June 1944, Page 5

LAUNCHING SITES IN CHERBOURG

LONDON, June 27. A correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain at Cherbourg says that the Americans who stormed, Cherbourg yesterday captured two more sites from which the Germans planned to launch flying bombs, revealing the extent to which they intended to use Normandy as a firing point against Britain. At least half a dozen of these concrete installations have now been captured on Cherbourg peninsula. None of them hau been completed. The German news agency claimed that the accuracy of aim of the flying bom» has improved as a result of recent experience, and added that a . large number of flying bombs have been aimed at armament and industrial areas in Britain. ■ The top turret gunner in an American Liberator is the first member of a bomber crew to shoot down a German flying bomb. The Liberator, after bombing a German target, was returning to its base in England when the gunner saw two njing bombs hurtling through the air. He fired and shot one of them down with a few bursts. RAF. fighters again shot down a number of flying bombs today, before they reached their destinations. British, New Zealand, and Dutch squadrons had returned substantial scores by midday. Pilots who had a number of previous successes included Flight Lieutenant H. N. Sweetman, D.F.C., Auckland. An Air Ministry communique says that under fighter cover Halifaxes without loss attacked military installations in northern France this afternoon. Before dusk this evening. Fortresses and Liberators attacked flying bomb sites in I the Pas de Calais, and targets north of Pans, hive bombers and three fighters are missing.