ENEMY HARRIED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1940, Page 6

ENEMY HARRIED

MANY ATTACKS BY BRITISH PLANES HEAVY DAMAGE DONE. MUNITION STORE BLOWN UP IN HOLLAND. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.2 p.m.) RUGBY, June 28. An Air Ministry communique states: “During yesterday, in addition to their routine convoy escorts, aircraft of the Coastal Command carried out an extensive reconnaissance over the North Sea and English Channel and the coasts of Scandinavia and Holland. In the course of these operations which were continued during the night, damage was done to enemy shipping and seaplane bases at Helder and at Texel were bombed and a Heinkel destroyed. Five of our aircraft failed to return. “Yesterday R.A.F. bombers also carried out deep reconnaissances over France in the afternoon and penetrated into Germany as far as Hanover. Here two oil tanks were set on fire. From these operations two of our bombers are missing. “Two of our fighters failed to return from an escort patrol ovei- France. Last night our bombers attacked military objectives in Denmark and North Germany. Oil tanks at Nybork Island, west of Copenhagen, were set on fire. An aircraft factory as Wismar in Meckienberg, was heavily bombed and fires were started at an aircraft factory at Deichshausen. “Lock gates on the Dortumund-Ems Canal were heavily damaged. Barges on a canal five miles north of Reisenbeck were bombed and one was blown out of the water. Inland docks near Duisberg were also bombed, as well as marshalling yards at Schwerte and Osnabruck and a munitions factory at Heerdt, near Dusseldorf. All our aircraft returned safely. “This morning Coastal Command aircraft attacked and blew up an ammunition store at Willemsoord Harbour, Holland.” CANADIAN PILOT’S DIVE. An Air Ministry bulletin contains details of an attack this morning on the ammunition store at Willemsoord Harbour, Holland, officially announced in the above Air Ministry communique. A young Canadian, a holder of the D.S.C., was flying a Hudson aircraft of the Coastal Command on a dawn patrol. He approached the Germanoccupied harbour at 13.000 feet and then shut off his engine. He pulled out! of the dive at 3,000 feet and the explosion of his bombs was the first thing the German ground defences knew of his presence. As he circled the town after his attack he saw a big explosion in one of the ammunition stores he had wrecked and a large fire among buildings on the dockside.