R.A.F. AGAIN CONCENTRATES ON COLOGNE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1940, Page 5

R.A.F. AGAIN CONCENTRATES ON COLOGNE

Much Damage Done by Heavy and Medium Bombers SLACKENING IN ENEMY RAIDS ON BRITAIN SWEDISH JOURNALISTS INSPECT BIRMINGHAM Less than twenty-four hours after the very heavy raid on Cologne on Tuesday night, a 8.8. C. broadcast states, large forces of Air Borce big bombers were back there on Wednesday night. Industrial and military objectives were bombed intensively for two hours. Particular attention was given to a great bridge over the E,hine. The structure carries a double railway track and a motor road and the bridge and its approaches on east and west were heavily bombed. Tremendous fires were started, one of them a mile long. ? Other heavy bombers attacked industrial’targets in Cologne and caused explosions, one of which lasted for at least 30 seconds. Medium bombers attacked wharves and docks on both sides of the Rhine. One British pilot of an historical turn of mind said: “I believe Cologne was originally settled by a German tribe which had been compelled to migrate across the Rhine. We are carrying on the good work. We must have done a good deal towards compelling them to migrate again.” Ports, aerodromes and other objectives elsewhere in enemy and occupied territory were also heavily bombed. Enemy raids over Britain on Wednesday were made only by planes flying at a great height. One enemy bomber was destroyed over Britain on Wednesday night. The raids were not heavy and were confined almost entirely to a town in the south-west of England and to London and its suburbs. During daylight on Wednesday, eleven enemy planes were shot down by British fighters. Two British planes were lost, but no fighters. Swedish correspondents, after making an extended survey of Birmingham, have stated that the damage done there was much less than in the earlier raid on Coventry. The correspondents made a motor tour of the city lasting for several hours and they say that all the damage can be repaired easily and that it is nothing worse than London has suffered on many occasions.