SPECTACULAR RAID

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20918, 19 October 1942, Page 3

SPECTACULAR RAID

LANCASTER FORCE FRENCH ARMS WORKS X COMPARABLE TO KRUPP 3 (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) ill a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 18. A large force of unescorted Lancaster bombers at dusk last night made a concentrated attack for 20 minutes for the first time on the huge arms works at Le Crepsot, 170 miles southeastwards of Paris. It was the Bomber Command’s heaviest daylight raid of the war and the longest by such a large force of Lancasters since the daylight raid on Augsberg on April 17. The Air Ministry says that preliminary reports show that the operation was highly successful. Only one Lancaster has not returned. Fuller reports of the raid announced by the Air Ministry reveal that the first squadron over the target was led by Wing-Commander L. C. Slee. All the bombing was completed within seven minutes. In that time a great weight of bombs was dropped, many fires broke out, and shortly after the attack there was a large exDlosion

One formation bombed an electrical transformer station nearby which supplies power to the Schneider' works. The only aircraft missing of the .04 planes engaged in the operation was lost in this attack. One Lancaster was attacked by three Arando floatplanes. Two of them were shot down into the sea. Mustangs Over Holland

The Le Cruesot arms works cover 287 acres and are the largest and most important of the international Schneider cartel. They have been making German pattern guns of very, heavy calibre and also locomotives, machine tools and armour plate, and are comparable to Krupps in size and importance. The Germans during the battle of France avoided bombing the works.

The Air Ministry says that Le Creusot has no features or landmarks for night navigation, and the town is small and congested. A night attack would have inflicted great losses on the French civilian population. Commentators are claiming that the raid will rank as one of the Royal Air Force’s greatest achievements. Experts. on the meagre details available, are already describing it as sensational. The Vichy radio declared that 40 French people were killed and 80 injured in the raid. The Air Ministry states that yesterday afternoon Mustangs of the Army Co-operation Command attacked goods trains, locomotives and other targets in Holland. Spitfires of the Fighter Command attacked objectives in northern France. All our machines returned. The Air Ministry also reports that Hudson aircraft of the Coastal Command, without loss, attacked shipping off the French coast last night. A ship was hit and this morning was seen wrecked and aground. The attacking aircraft belonged to a Netherlands Air Service squadron. Raiders Over Britain Some casualties and damage were caused by enemy raiders over coastal districts of the north-east of England last night. An enemy plane was shot down off the south coast early this morning. A Royal Air Force fighter this afternoon shot down an enemy fighter into the sea off the south-east coast of England. This morning a single enemy aircraft dropped bombs at a place near the south-east coast of England. There were no injuries and only slight damage. An enemy bomber was destroyed by our fighters off the French coast to-day. ■Flying over the Channel this afternoon. two New Zealand pilots of the Fighter Command saw bombs drop on the south-east coast. A few moments later they spotted two Focke-Wulfs racing for home low down over the sea. They concentrated on one and shot it down in the Channel after a 10-mile pursuit.