COAST ABLAZE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1940, Page 6

COAST ABLAZE

R.A.F. ATTACKS ON CHANNEL PORTS U-BOAT & OTHER BASES BOMBED. LITTLE BOMBING IN BRITAIN. Fires started in the French Channel ports on Monday night by the R.A.F. were still visible from the English coast yesterday afternoon, the 8.8. C. reports. Huge columns of smoke were seen rising and the fires were like an evening sunset. Bordeaux was one of the places singled out for attack. The docks were heavily bombed and the submarine base at Lorient and an aircraft base were also attacked. One British machine is missing and an enemy fighter was shot down by a British bomber. In the last 24 hours Britain had been clear of enemy aircraft except for reconnaissance flights by scattered planes. Two Messerschmitt 109’s were driven back across the Channel and another was forced to fly so high that it did not drop a single bomb. Late in the afternoon bombs were dropped on the coast, causing some damage and casualties.

SIXTY=FIVE TO ONE WEEK’S LOSSES OF AIRMEN OVER BRITAIN. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 9. During the week ended at midnight on Saturday, 26 German aircraft were shot down over Britain, and eight British machines were lost, but seven out of the eight Royal Air Force pilots are safe. The air crew losses in the week as far as the air war over Britain is concerned were therefore in the ratio of approximately 65 to 1. On December 3 and 4 no losses were incurred by either side. HONEST ADMISSION MADE BY GERMAN PAPER. DAMAGE & NERVE STRAIN. LONDON. December 9. A German weekly paper prints an unusually honest admission of the damaging qualities of British raids on Western Germany. It says: “British bombers in the past month have persistently bombed the Rhine-Ruhr district, particularly Dusseldorf, Cologne, Essen and Dortmund.” The newspaper says' that Western Germany is of more importance than all the other provinces of Germany. It asks whether the people of Berlin and other parts of Germany appreciate the strain of spending night after night in cellars, and yet being compelled to do a full day’s work afterward. “The attacks that have been endured are a very severe test of the nerves of the German people,” it says, “and all the harder to endure because all this bombing is hardly mentioned in the German Press.” Neutral observers confirmed the reports of heavy damage in the Ruhr done by the recent intensive British bombing.