BRITISH BOMBING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1940, Page 5

BRITISH BOMBING

. ATTACKS DRIVEN HOME IN GERMANY HAVOC IN INDUSTRIAL AREAS. MANY FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 19. Graphic details are available of the attacks of heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force over northwest Germany last night. At Bremen more than 250 bombs were dropped within 10 minutes, causing heavy explosions among oil tanks and starting numerous fires. Hamburg was subjected to a series of raids which began shortly after midnight and lasted till near dawn. Salvoes repeatedly straddled a large oil depot near the docks, and fires that had been kindled by earlier attacks became so widespread that the blaze could be seen by the homeward-bound aircraft as they crossed the German coast 80 miles distant.

At Castrop when high-explosive bombs fell on a petroleum refinery flames were seen to break out, and after one raider had left the target his tail-gunner, looking back, saw a big explosion take place. Storage tanks at Misburg, close to Hanover, were also systematically bombed. A direct hit on a large building in the centre of the target, believed to be a power-house, resulted in an explosion that was felt by the crew of the aircraft 10,000 feet above. Here, too, fierce fires which broke out could be seen by the raiding crews long after they had left the target, area. Another power-house is believed to have been destroyed in an attack on oil tanks at Sterkrade, where the British bombers pressed home their attack in spite of intense anti-aircraft fire.

Other sections of night raiders, with railway communications in the Rhineland and Ruhr as their objectives, attacked marshalling yards, rail junctions, and supply trains. Direct, hits were registered on the railway junctions at Gladbach. Wesel, and Arsbech, and fires were started in crowded marshalling yards at Schwerte. At Dusseldorf a series of attacks was launched against the principal railway yard, and 21 separate fires were counted within this yard by the rear gunner of the last aircraft to leave the scene.

MUNITIONS TRAIN BLOWN UP. Two goods trains standing in the marshalling yard at Soest were both hit with heavy calibre bombs and the yard itself was left enveloped in a pall of black smoke through which numerous small explosions could be seen. A third train steaming out of .the yard was heavily machine-gunned from a low level.

Another train, believed to have been loaded with munitions, was caught in a cutting near Cologne and struck by three heavy bombs, and explosions accompanied by great clouds of smoke at once broke out among the wagons. A machine-gun mounted on the tram opened fire on one of the British bombers, which promptly retaliated by coming low and machine-gunning the full length of the wrecked train. The other military objectives attacked during the night included the power-station at Schilau (near Hamburg) , where direct hits resulted in vivid zig-zag flashes which lit up the whole target area, and a large munitions works at Cologne which was set alight and left with the flames blazing several hundred feet high. HANGARS SET ON FIRE By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, June 20. The Air Ministry announced that yesterday afternoon and last evening the Royal Air Force successfully bombed grounded enemy planes at aerodromes near Amiens and Rouen and set fire to hangars. DAYLIGHT ATTACKS NUMBER OF ENEMY PLANES DESTROYED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, June 20. Aircraft on the ground were destroyed, petrol tanks set alight and hangars wrecked, in the course of daylight attacks on two enemy aerodromes in France yesterday, by medium bombers of the R.A.F. At Rouen, where 25 or more enemy aircraft were dispersed round an aerodrome, the attackers scored numerous direct hits on hangars. Tarmac was scattered over the aircraft and several aircraft burst into flames. In the late evening another strong force of medium bombers attacked an enemy-occupied aerodrome near Amiens. One of three main hangars and a large aircraft standing nearby were set alight in the first sortie, which was quickly followed by a still heavier attack, in which twelve aircraft on the ground were destroyed by high explosive bombs. Many others were damaged. Hits were also scored on the two remaining hangars and there was a sudden outbreak of lire, which spread rapidly among buildings, suggesting that a petrol dump had been struck and the fuel set alight. All the British aircraft returned safely to their bases.