NAZI RAILWAYS BOMBED

Southland Times, Issue 24232, 16 September 1940, Page 5

NAZI RAILWAYS BOMBED

R.A.F. Tries To Upset Invasion Plans DAMAGE TO TRANSPORT CENTRES • | (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, September 14. In spite of adverse weather, described succinctly by the pilots themsejves as “generally foul,” Royal Air Force 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 shows that aircraft of both the Coastal and Bomber Commands were engaged in the night’s operations, from which all the planes 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 incendiary bombs on the Hamm yard. At the Ehrang yards, near Luxembourg, on the frontier north of Trier, heavy bombs burst along a line of trucks causing several explosions and fires which burned with a vivid glare. At Osnabruck, too, bombers flew through dense cloud. One scraped a balloon cable with a wing tip. Attacking from various heights, the raiders started 10 large fires in the yards. Some of the aircraft which attacked the Essen yards were badly iced up. Heavy bombs were dropped on the railway sidings. INTENSE BARRAGE 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. The Germans recently have been sending much of their military traffic through the Brussels yards. These have been attacked several times by the Royal Air Force in the past week. They were bombed again last night, and 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 greencoloured explosions. Then another fire 200 yards long was seen in the middle of the siding.

Meanwhile, another section of the

raiders visited Emden and bombed the docks and petroleum sheds on the west side of Altebinnen Hafen.

The attack went on for an hour.

Squadrons operating over Holland bombed the docks at Flushing and Detfzijl at the mouth of the Ems, opposite Emden and the Norderney seaplane base, and the base at De Kooy, near Den Helder. The first raider to reach Flushing found a semi-circle of anti-aircraft ships round the harbour entrance. They immediately opened an intense barrage. Light and heavy shore batteries joined in and tracer bullets flared past the bombers at a high angle. Machine-guns added their quota. Through this barrage one of the raiders flew at 600 feet. A German oil tanker was bombed by Bristol Blenheims of the Coastal Command near Le Havre. A supply ship was also hit ATTACK ON FLUSHING The pilot of an aircraft which last night dived down to nearly ground level over the Flushing dockyard in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire and dropped his bombs, said, in describing the exploit: “We were fairly low when they opened up. I have never seen anything like it, there was so much of it. I put down the nose of the plane and hoped for the best. Searchlights were holding us all the time. I just kept my eyes on the instruments and on the docks. If one had looked round one would have been blinded. “As we went over, the bombaimer made certain that all the bombs were gone. We dropped them and they landed right in the centre of the dock buildings. Immediately we were thrown to 600 feet. There were tremendous explosions, the second pilot, who was standing beside me, being knocked off his feet. I was just concentrating on trying to keep the aircraft in the air and get away. There was a curtain of fire on all sides. We went through.”