PLANES OVER GERMANY

Southland Times, Issue 24230, 13 September 1940, Page 5

PLANES OVER GERMANY

BERLIN TARGETS SUFFER GOEBBELS’S GARDEN HIT BARGE CONCENTRATIONS ATTACKED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) LONDON, September 11. Although the Royal Air Force raids on Berlin last night were “nothing more ' than an incident in the raids on Germany” great damage was done. The Potsdam railway station in the centre of the city was heavily bombed and hit repeatedly by heavy bombs and showers of incendiary bombs. While London was receiving its nightly dose of German air brutality, Berlin, according to neutral correspondents, was given a strong taste of its own medicine when the Royal Air Force penetrated the capital’s l defences and bombed central Berlin. A thermite bomb crashed through the roof of the Reichstag and smouldered in the hall before it was extinguished. The Reichstag is not used at present, as it is still undergoing reconstruction after the 1933 fire. Other bombs fell in this district which contains government offices.

Incendiary bombs peppered the area around the United States Embassy, near which a 5001 b bomb fell. A high explosive bomb was dropped near the Ministry of the Interior, smashing the ground floor windows in a building occupied by the American News Service. A heavy bomb landed in the centre of the Avenue of Splendour, which is Hitler’s particular pride. / LOSS OF FOUR PLANES The Air Ministry states that besides the Potsdam station, . the Royal Air Force last night bombed Bremen and Wilhelmshaven, vast concentrations in the docks and harbours on the French, Belgian and Dutch coasts and also gun emplacements at Cap Gris Nez, railway targets at St. Duisberg and Brussels, and aerodromes in Germany and Germanoccupied territory. Four British planes have not returned.

The Air Ministry News Service says that the Royal Air Force repeatedly hit the Potsdam station with heavy bombs and several hundred incendiary bombs. Pilots of all machines claimed several direct hits on the station and the station yards. Several planes attacked by gliding through the antiaircraft barrage. Fires broke out as showers of incendiary bombs fell. One fire was particularly large and there were several smaller ones. The raiders left for home after releasing all their bombs.

The German News Agency admits that a 151 b incendiary bomb fell 10 feet from Dr Josef Goebbels’s residence in Berlin, tearing a deep hole

in the garden. Some of the heaviest attacks were made against barge concentrations, shipping and docks in the French Channel ports. The Calais dock bore the brunt of the attack. Barges and harbour stores and an equipment store were bombed. Salvoes and sticks of bombs were dropped over the Carnot Basin and were observed to burst among many barges which were packed together. A large part of the dock area was left in flames, one fire alone enveloping at least 200 yards of waterfront. Guns were silenced and searchlights extinguished around the harbour. MASSED BARGES HIT One pilot spent an hour over his objective, dodging shells and weaving his way in and out of the clouds. Biding his time, the bomb-aimer let go his bombs.. The sticks were laid accurately across the docks. A clear gap in the clouds enabled another crew to drop bombs right along the barges massed along the Carnot Basin. As high explosive bombs poured into the packed vessels which lined the whole side of the basin and extended three-quarters of the way across it, chunks of debris were flung into the air. Fires again broke out and explosions were going on as the aircraft left.

The observer of one bomber saw a large merchant ship about a mile north of the Channel leading to the docks suddenly burst into flames and burn fiercely.