SHATTERING BLOWS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 14 September 1940, Page 7

SHATTERING BLOWS

ON GERMAN CENTRES.

RAILWAYS DESTROYED

(United Press Association —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 13. In spite of adverse weather, described succinctly by the pilots themselves as “generally foul,” R.A.F. bombers on Thursday night continued to harry the German invasion plans. They struck in particular at the network of vital railway junctions and goods yards in Western Germany.

A communique issued this evening shows that aircraft of both the Coastal and Bomber Commands were engaged in the night’s operations, from w'hich all returned safely. '

The Air Ministry News Service points out that these junctions and goods yards, which include some of the largest and most elaborate in Europe, must play an important part in any . attempted invasion of Britain. Troops, reserves, equipment, and supplies moving westwards to the Channel ports from Germany must pass through one or other of these key transport centres.

It was before 10 o’clock that, in thick cloud and drizzling rain, the first raider dropped heavy bombs and incendiaries on the Hamm yard. At the Ehrang_ yards, near the Luxembourg frontier, north of Trier, heavy bomba burst along a line of trucks, causing several explosions and fires which burned with a vivid glare.

At Osnabruck (in Hanover), too, the bombers flew through dense cloud. One scraped a balloon cable with its wing tip. Attacking from various heights, tlie raiders started ten largo fires in the yards. Some of the aircraft which attacked the Essen yards became badly “iced up,” hut heavy bombs were dropped on the railway sidings. The Schwerte marshalling yards were also attacked in the face of an intense barrage from light anti-aircraft batteries. . . Another raider bombed the sidings at Emmerich, on the Rhine near the Dutch border. HAVOC AT BRUSSELS.

The Germans have recently been routing much of their military traific through the Brussels yards. These have been attacked several times by the R.A.F. in the past week, and they were bombed again last night. After bursts were seen on the target, a U-shaped fire three-quarters of a mile long was seen on the north of the yard. There was a series of green-coloured explosions, then another fire 200 yards long was seen in the middle of the siding.

Meanwhile another section of raiders visited Emden and bombed the docks and petroleum sheds. The attack went on for ail hour.

Squadrons operating over Holland bombed the docks at Flushing and Detfziji, at the mouth of the Ems opposite Emden, and the Nordernoy seaplane base and the base at De Kooy, near Den Holder. The first raider to reach Flushing found a semi-circle of anti-aircraft ships round the harbour entrance. They ihimediately opened an intense barrage and light and heavy shore batteries joined in. Tracer bullets flared past the. bombers and liigh-angle machine-guns added their quota. Through this barrage one of the raiders flew at 600 ft. A German oil tanker was bombed by Blenheims of the Coastal Command near Le Havre, and a supply ship was also hit. The Air Ministry announced this evening that in the course of the last enemy raids on Britain an enemy bomber fouled a balloon barrage cable and was destroyed.

DOZENS OF TARGETS

SCOPE OF R.A.F. CAMPAIGN

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 12.

The impressive scale of recent Royal Air Force attacks on military objectives on the Continent can best be appreciated from a summary of the number of raids on specific targets. Since the beginning of September till Wednesday morning—a period during which the brunt of the Nazi attack has fallen on London—-the R.A.F. has carried out 23 separate attacks on Ger-man-occupied aerodromes in France, i 8 on German aerodromes, 10 on aerodromes in Holland, and two on. aerodromes in Belgium. • There have been 15 raids on forests concealing military objectives. Great tracts of the Black Forest were set ablaze, and equal success was achieved in other forests near Berlin. There were 35 attacks on the German rail system, including the large Potsdam station in Berlin, and considerable damage was caused in marshalling yards, sidings and to tracks. On German and German-occupied docks and shipyards there have been 29 raids, where big fires and explosions were caused, 12 raids on barge concentrations, five attacks on canal and river systems, 14 raids on munition works, 'among which was Krupps, eight attacks on aircraft works, including the B.M.S. factory at Munich, 16 raids on oil refineries, and nine raids on fire stations. The West Charlottenburg station (near Berlin) was bombed for two successive nights, many direct hits and numerous flashes and explosions resulting. There were seven attacks on gun emplacements on the French coast, 11 attacks on shipping, three attacks on Italian objectives, including aero engine works at Turin, and many other varied military objectives, including gasworks, blast-furnaces and light installations.