DIRECT HITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1940, Page 5

DIRECT HITS

ON LARGE POWER STATION DETAILS OF SUCCESSFUL BRITISH BOMBING. IN THE INDUSTRIAL SECTION I OF BERLIN. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.5 a.m.) RUGBY, September 26. Last night’s long air raid on Berlin is described by an Air Ministry bulletin, which says: “From soon after 10 p.m. until the early hours of the morning heavy bombers of the R.A.F. kept up a series of attacks on important military objectives in and around Berlin. Four separate attacks within an hour were made on the Klingenberg Power Station, in the heart of the industrial section, to the east of the city. This station, known as Gross Draftwerk Klingenberg, has an output capacity of 300,000 kilowatts and is the power supply source of some of the city’s largest industrial concerns. Sticks of heavy calibre bombs burst on and around the station, followed by an outbreak of fire. A west power station, two miles south of the Tegel See, which had already been heavily damaged in previous raids, was again attacked and a large fire was started. “Salvos of high explosives were dropped on the Schoneberg railway yards, three miles south-west of the centre of the city, and on a main railway junction near the Charlottenburg district, one of the chief residential quarters of the city. “In an attack on Berlin’s main airport of Tempelhof a line of bombs was laid across the north part of the aerodrome, and the nearby railway sidings were also bombed. “Another raider, which arrived over the eastern outskirts of the city six minutes before midnight, cruised above an industrial district for twenty minutes, searching for a target, under heavy fire from ground batteries. After five parachute flares had been released, the target, a munition factory at Rudersdorf, 17 miles east from Berlin, was located and bombed and a fire was seen to break out.”

HEAVIEST YET BRITISH RAIDS ON FRENCH CHANNEL PORTS WHOLE COAST ABLAZE TERRIFIC EXPLOSIONS FELT IN KENT (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9 a.m.) LONDON, September 26. The R.A.F. again bombarded the French Channel ports for some hours. Early tonight the entire coast between Dunkirk and Boulogne appeared to be on fire, lighting up the country almost like daylight. Terrific explosions in the neighbourhood of Calais and Cape Gris Nez shook Kent. They were' the heaviest of all the raids that . have been made on the French coast. GERMAN LIES REGARDING AIRCRAFT LOSSES. FACTS STATED IN LONDON. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, September 26. A German High Command communique states: “Yesterday the enemy lost 10 planes, eight of which were Spitfires. One of them was brought down by our naval anti-aircraft guns off the North Sea coast. Six of our own planes are missing.

The following authoritative comment was made on the foregoing in London: —“With regard to the German figures for air losses, 26 German machines w?re in fact shot down yesterday against four British machines, with three pilots safe. In consequence the German losses in trained pilots and air crews compared with British personnel losses amounted to no less than 70 to one.”

DOCK AREAS VISITED BY DOMINION REPRESENTATIVES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9 a.m.) LONDON, September 26. The High Commissioners, including New Zealand’s, Mr W. J. Jordan, toured the bombed East End dock areas on Wednesday. FACTORY IN GERMANY OWNER NO LONGER INTERESTED. ON ACCOUNT OF BOMB DAMAGE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 25. A sidelight is thrown on the damage that is being inflicted to an important manufacturing plant in Germany in raids by the Royal Air Force by a story that is told by a Washington writer in the New York “Daily Mirror,” according to which one American motor manufacturer whose plant in Germany had been taken over by the Nazis informed German Government officials that he was no longer interested in the question of the return of his plant. It had been too heavily damaged by British bombs for him to care what happened to it. LONDON BANKS WILL CARRY ON IN SPITE OF RAIDS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 25. The banks will keep open for the transaction of urgent business during air-raid warnings in accordance with a decision by the committee of the London Clearing Bankers. If it is necessary for a stall to shelter during a period of danger services will still be provided though there may be cases where the offices cannot be opened to the public. Such of the cable news on this page as is so headed has appeared in “The Times,” and is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by that the opinions are not those of “The Times" unl<ws exeressly stated to be so.