BOMBING POLICY

Evening Star, Issue 24330, 20 October 1942, Page 3

BOMBING POLICY

ALREADY PAYING DIVIDENDS

ALLIES' SINGLE CO-ORDINATED PLAN

(British Official Wireless.)

(Rec. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 19. The destruction of the Schneider Creuzot works is greeted by the British Press as a very remarkable operation, which promises yet greater developments. “ Every detail,” says the ‘ Daily Telegraph,’ “ encourages the hope that, contrary to the theory so far generally accepted as the result of the experience of the Battle of Britain, it may be possible to devise successful technique for heavy daylight attacks on targets in Germany, thus, weather, permitting, to keep .up continuous bombing of the enemy day and night.” The ‘ Telegraph ’ also notes the contrast in losses with the Augsburg raid, while the ‘Express,’ says: “Its eightton load made the Lancaster the backbone of the big night raids, and its speed and fire power make it as terrible a menace in daylight as in the dark.”

The ‘News Chronicle,’ points out that the raids on Lille and Le Creuzot were partly inspired by the same tactical idea—dislocation of Germany’s internal communications. “The Lille works and the Schneider factories both manufacture locomotives, though the Schneider works also produce heavy armaments on a large scale. The damage done in these two raids will have serious effects throughout the Reich; that is why the Allies are putting_ all they know into smashing communications. The bombing of engineering works, railway centres, marshalling yards, and shooting up locomotives in northern France are all aspects of a single co-ordinated plan. It is already yielding good dividends. When Germany is called on to fight on two ob more fronts its full value .will for the first time he clearly revealed.”

HEDGE-HOPPING DASH

LANCASTERS’ DAYLIGHT RAID

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, October 18. A vivid account of the hedge-hopping dash across France to bomb the Le Creuzot works was given by a sergeant pilot. “ As we all took the hedges,” he said, it was like a Grand National, except that there were no falls. Some of the French people waved, and all the animals bolted as we roared over their heads. We saw no fighters, but a duck came with a wallop through the windscreen. All the way over there were other Lancasters on each side of us.

“ We got to Le Creuzot just after sunset, and could see the factory dead ahead. A stick of bombs from another aircraft dropped in front of us right across the works, then we dropped our stick parallel to it, and. the buildings just flopped apart. There was a red flash in the middle of one building, and it was not there any more. In a little while all we could see were clouds of smoke with red fires and bombs bursting inside.”

GERMAN ALLEGATION

RED CROSS PLANE FIRED ON

, LONDON, October 18. < “ A British destroyer in the Mediterranean attacked a clearly-marked German Red Cross plane from Africa containing 16 wounded, thus again injuring the wounded and setting fire to the plane,” says the Berlin radio. “'When the plane attempted to regain its base the destroyer instructed two British planes to attack it, and the wounded were consequently injured for a third time.”

WORLD'S GREATEST NAVY

AMERICAN FLEET OF 1943

(Rec. 9.57 a.m.) NEW YORK, October 19. The United States in .1943 will turn out a greater navy than any other nation has ever possessed, Colonel Knox told an audience at Manchester, New Hampshire. He added: “That is true both as to the number and the balance of types of ships. Its only equal would be _ the combined United States and British Navies at the beginning of the war.”