NAZI PORTS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1940, Page 7

NAZI PORTS

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

BRITISH TARGETS

HAMPERING INVASION

CONCENTRATED ATTACK

British Official Wireless.. Rec. 5.5 p.m. Rugby, Sept. "9. Enemy ports, shipping and barge concentrations were heavily attacked by the Royal Air Force by both day and night, according to an Air Ministry communique, which stated: "In the course of routine reconnaissances yesterday our bombers. attacked shipping in the ports of Dunkirk and Boulogne and convoys in the North Sea. Five of our aircraft are missing. "Last .night, in spite of severe weather over the Continental coast- ! line, strong forces of bombers cari ried out operations against enemy j and enemy-occupied ports, barge | concentrations and shipping at Ham- | burg, Bremen, Emden, Ostend, jCalais and Boulogne. Widespread j damage was done to oil tanks and j ammunition stores. Many fires were i started. Eight of our aircraft did not return." ■ The R'.A.F. bombers which made a concentrated attack on Hamburg at ! night were over the docks and shipyards ' in relays for over three hours. I Methodicaily pinpointing their targets, i they released salvo after salvo of heavy j bombs and hundreds of incendiaries. ReI peatedly sticks of heavy bombs were seen i to crash across the docks and port inj stallations.

Yards Straddled, Many sticks of high explosives straddled the Blohm and Voss J'ards and flres broke out in many parts of the target area. Although some died down again others caught on and burned fiercely. - The crew of one aircraft saw wharves and a railway station on. the north bank of the Elbe burning, another flre at Hanshafen and the glow of a third down stream near Altona. One of the early raiders, who dropped a stlck across the docks, saw two flres begiq about 500 yards apart on the north bank, close to the mouth of the Elbe tunnel. By 11 p.m. low- cloud had formed. A pilot arrivlng then said: "We could see little owing to the clouds, haze, darkness and heavy anti-aircraft fire but we did^see that our bombs straddled the docks." Bombs could be seen bursting among the dockside buildings, while the fierce anti-aircraft barrage continued, More fires broke out and they were burning fiercely as the bombers left. The glare in the sky over the docks could be seen from 60 miles away by the raiders on their homeward journey. Big Firea at Emden. "Fires were started which were quite as big as anything I saw at London," was the description of the result Of bornfas dropped by Royal Air Force aircraft on the Emden dockyard made ■' by a rear gunner who spent leave at London. The attack on Emden was made at the same time as other British aircraft were bombing Boulogne. . Some raiders on the ofccupied French harbour, however, experienced difficult weather on the way to the target. Leaving England in fine conditions, the aircraft encountered electrical storms after a lialf-hour's joumey. As freezing' level was only 6000 feet it was impossible to rise above the storms, and they were unable to get below them because they went down as far as ground level. Describing the voyage, the pilot of one aircraft said: "Our aircraft was being thrown about the sky. It was absolutely impossible to keep a steady speed or height. Once or twice we were jerked up at least 600 feet by an electrical current. When we go4 over the target the port engine was hit and there was a burst of flame as oil started burning. Then the flames disappeared, but we were running on an engine and a-half for the rest of the time. "On the way back we found the wire-. less ..as out of action owing to the storm. It \ -.s largely thanks to the navigator that we got home. He gave me courses which brought us in dead over the aerodrome. Just as we were turning in to land the port engine" failed completely."