HARD BLOWS AT NAZIS

Southland Times, Issue 24233, 17 September 1940, Page 5

HARD BLOWS AT NAZIS

HEAVY BOMBING BY R.A.F. BARGES ON COAST SET ON FIRE (British Official Wireless) (Rec. September 16, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, September 15. Large forces of British bombers ranged on Saturday night over Germany, France, Belgium and Holland, systematically seeking out and breaking up the German High Command’s invasion machine. Flying through appalling weather—the aircraft were struck by lightning, radio aerials burned off in a violent electric storm and many machines were iced up—the raiders struck heavily at the invasion’s frontline in the Channel ports of Holland, France and Belgium and attacked bases, railway junctions and trans-

port centres in Germany,

whence comes its reserves and supplies.

One of the night’s most devastating onslaughts was made on Antwerp. Havoc was caused in the vast ijetwork of docks, warehouses and petrol sheds on the banks of the Scheldt and shipping lying in the stream as large forces of bombers dropped nearly 40 tons of high explosive bombs and more than 1000 incendiary bombs in an attack lasting from 11 o’clock until 1.30 a.m. on Sunday.

The port, shipping, long-range guns, anti-aircraft batteries and searchlight concentrations at and around Calais were all bombed heavily from 8.30 until nearly 11 o’clock. While some of the raiders attacked the harbour and shipping concentrations inside it, others sought out big guns nearby and started fires in these target areas. A huge fire was begun after one aircraft had attacked barges in Calais harbour and another pilot, flying through cloud into the moonlight, clearly saw and bombed various basins. Bombs burst on the wharf buildings, and barges in the No. 6 dock suffered particularly severe damage. One pilot reported that some minutes after he had dropped high explosive bombs among the barges there was a big explosion from the middle of the dock and flames shot upwards.

BOMBS BURST ON BARGES “I could actually see my bombs burst right on a concentration of barges on the east side of No. 6 dock,” said another pilot. “The last two scored a direct hit on a 5000-ton merchant ship at the north end of the dock and clouds of dense smoke began to come out of her. No. 6 dock was filled with barges, and I estimate there were about 300 of them.” One aircraft was held in the blinding glare of 10 searchlights. It was hit in several places and there was intense tracer fire. All the same the pilot made his attack and hit the north end of the Carnot • 'basin. Large numbers of barges were found in Ostend harbour, where the defences have been considerably strengthened during the past week. Many barges were in the outer harbour, the main west dock and basin No. 1, and these were all bombed. Supply depots at Osnabruck, Mannheim, Aachen, Hamm, Krefeld and Brussels were attacked and also rail communications at Rheine, Haus, Sundern, Husten and Westhofen. Our pilots and crews pressed home their attacks in spite of severe weather and heavy opposition from the ground defences. Gun emplacements at Cap Gris Nez and several enemy aerodromes were also bombed. One aircraft is missing. POLES CONGRATULATED The officer commanding the Bomber Command, Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal, today sent the following message to the officer commanding the bomber station on which are based the Polish squadrons which took part in last night’s air raid on Boulogne: “Hearty congratulations to your Polish crews on the successful completion of their first operation last night.” The successful attack on Boulogne, in which the Polish bomber squadrons cooperated with the Royal Air Force units, was the first raid against the enemy to be carried out by Polish bomber crews operating from Britain. Two squadrons from which these crews were drawn were formed only three weeks ago. The pilots who took part in last night’s raid are between 26 and 28 years of age and, like the members of their crews, have all had previous fighting experience in the Polish Air Force.