CONTINUED ACTIVELY BY ROYAL AIR FORCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1940, Page 5

CONTINUED ACTIVELY BY ROYAL AIR FORCE

In Spite of Unfavourable Weather HEAVY DAMAGE IN BERLIN AND CHANNEL PORTS SPASMODIC ENEMY ATTACKS ON BRITAIN Berlin and other military objectives in Germany, besides the Channel ports, were again bombed by the R.A.F. on Saturday night, in spite of bad weather, a 8.8. C. broadcast reports. The weather conditions generally over Northern Germany were unfavourable, but a number of the British aircraft reached their objectives. At Berlin a power station and anti-aircraft guns were bombed. Elsewhere, important railway centres were bombed and the Wilhelmshaven naval base was strongly attacked, fires and explosions occurring. A munitions works suffered severe damage. The Channel ports were heavily bombed, besides the big gun emplacements near Calais. Two British machines are missing. . . , Details of the systematic attacks during the past three months from July 1 to last Friday, carried out by the R.A.F., show that 216 raids were made on ports in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. German ports were raided. 77 times, French 76, Belgian 37 and Dutch 26. In all these raids the objectives were shipping, naval vessels, docks and so on. Attacks made on the different ports were: Wilhelmshaven 16 times, Hamburg 15, Bremen 14, Emden 12, Kiel 11, Flushing 14, Boulogne 24, Ostend 22, Calais 20 and Dunkirk 14. Barges were bombed in various ports on 56 different days. This list, it is stated, is not absolutely complete, but it gives a very good picture of the extent of Britain’s air offensive against the invasion bases. German air activity yesterday over Britain was spasmodic. London had two warnings but nothing came of them. Ten bombs were dropped on a coastal town, but most of them fell into the sea. One fell on a block of offices where workmen were engaged in repair work. Six workmen were killed. Three enemy planes were destroyed after midnight. One fouled a balloon cable and crashed into the sea off the south coast, the second was shot down in the Thames Valley by fighters and later anti-aircraft gunfire brought down a third into the sea off the south-east coast. During the night anti-aircraft fire kept most of the raiders on the outskirts of London. More incendiary than high-ex-plosive bombs were dropped, evidently in an effort to start fires to guide following aircraft. Places hit during the night included a hospital, a school and two churches.