RELENTLESS BLOWS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 251, 20 September 1940, Page 7

RELENTLESS BLOWS

NAZI CHANNEL PORTS.

HUGE EIRES RAGING

(United Press Associaf ion—Copyright.)

(British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 19. Continuing tlieir relentless hammering of tlie enemy’s channel ports, bomber squadrons of the R-A-U. last night again attacked shipping concentrations, docks and harbour installations from Flushing in the north to Le Havre in the south-west.

Le Havre was singled out for the night’s heaviest bombardment. Attacking in relays, a strong force of heavy bombers kept up an almost continuous assault upon harbours, docks, aiid shipping for close on five hours. Many tons of 'high-explosive bombs and great quantities of incendiary bombs were unloaded on the targets in the face of fierce opposition from the ground defences.

One of the earlier raiders attacked from a low level beneath a cloud. As its first stick of heavy bombs fell across, a dock there was the white flash of a terrific explosion, followed immediately after by a second and smaller explosion which appeared to come either from a ship moored alongside the Basin de Maree or from a large warehouse on the quayside. A great fire which grew out of the second explosion quickly spread and could be seen still blazing strongly by the bomber’s crew when they were 50 miles away on the return journey. RELAYS OF BOMBERS.

When the following aircraft pressed homo the attacks, sticks of highcxplosivo bombs were seen to burst along the quayside of the Basin do Maree and across the docks at the Quai de Saigon, and to- straddle the Basin Ballot from the north-east to the southwest. A fire soon broke out and spread among the shipping massed, in tlie Maree Basin and in a. dry dock near the Quai de Saigon. A stick of bombs were dropped across the dock from such a low level that the violence of the explosion shook the crew of the attacking aircraft. By 11 p.m. fires were raging in many parts of the harbour, a large ship alongside the quay was burning strongly, and a 7000-ton ship about a mile north of Honfleur was seen to be ablaze. The flames were lighting up a bank of low cloud which hung over the docks and town.

Relays of aircraft continued the bombardment until the early hours of the morning. Again and again the docks and ships alongside were straddled with sticks of highexplosive bombs.

Other invasion bases at Flushing, Boulogne, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Antwerp and Zeebrugge were also heavily attacked during the night, while other sections of the R.A.F. force, concentrating on rail communication centres in Germany, bombed the goods yards at Mannheim, Krofeld, Hamm, Osnabruck, Ehrang and BrusAircraft of the Coastal Command attacked a convoy off Borkum and a direct hit was registered on an enemy destroyer. Other Coastal Command aircraft attacked the port of Cherbourg, shipping off the Dutch coast and the aerodrome of De Kooy. Seven R.A.F. aircraft are missing. Further details of Tuesday night s raids on t'he harbour of Boulogne well illustrate the statement made by the Secretary for Air (Sir Archibald Sinclair) in his speech on Wednesday that attacks by British bombers, unlike the indiscriminate German attacks, were made from a low level in order to ensure that specified targets were hit. A sergeant-pilot dived to within 200 ft of Boulogne harbour and saw one ot his bombs strike a small -cargo vessel. Another fell near a light anti-aircraft gun on the harbour walls and the gun ceased fire. The rest of t'he bombs fell round the dock walls.

GERMAN CLAIMS.

“MILITARY OBJECTIVES.”

(Rcc. 11 55 a.m.) BERLIN, Sept. 19. A communique states: “We again attacked military objectives in London and neighbourhood, damaging Tilbury Docks, the harbour at Chatham Dockyards, and setting fire to an oil depot at Port Victoria. Other targets successfully attacked include the Royal Albert Dockcs, Silvertown, Liverpool harbour, the Billingham chemical works, the Newcastle docks and aerodromes in the Midlands. The enemy bombed Belgium and Northern France. There was no damage and a number of civilians were killed. “The enemy last night hit three hospitals marked with the Red Cross. Nine children were killed and 12 injured. The enemy has lost 38 planes; 13 of ours are missing.” The German News Agency states that the R.A.F. have severely damaged districts in Hamburg.