13 NIGHT BOMBERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1941, Page 5

13 NIGHT BOMBERS

SHOT DOWN DURING ATTACKS ON BRITAIN Triumph for Night Fighters on Thursday TERRIFIC R.A.F. ONSLAUGHT ON HAMBURG DEVASTATION WROUGHT IN SHIPYARDS AND DOCKS \ It is officially stated by the Air Ministry that thirteen / enemy raiders were shot down during raids on Britain on Thursday night, the 8.8. C. reports. This result was obtained under conditions excellent for interception, but a bag of thirteen is a triumph for night-fighters, which shot down no less than eleven Another enemy bomber was brought down by antiaircraft gun fire and another by other means. No information is yet available as to what this new weapon might be. , A further enemy plane was shot down into the sea on the coast during daylight yesterday. In the first fourteen days of March, 35 enemy planes have been destroyed in night operations, as compared with 29, the previous record, for night raids in the whole of September. A terrific attack was made on Hamburg on Thursday night by the R.A.F,, states the 8.8. C. Bremen, Emden, Rotterdam and other parts of Holland were also attacked. The raid on Hamburg was the heaviest of the war. A powerful force of bombers attacked the docks and shipyards, where submarines and ships of all kinds are built. The raid lasted for three hours. In this time so much damage was done that it was difficult to pick up details on the ground through the glare of fires and clouds of smoke over the city. On both banks of the Elbe, the intricate network of docks, harbours, quays, warehouses and factories was blazing. Pilots described a large fire in one district, a huge fire in another and a raging fire in one part of the dock area which was- watched by a rear-gunner for 100 miles. , , . „ Coastal Command aircraft sank an enemy supply ship off the Norwegian coast and other ships were machine-gunned. A supply ship near the Frisian Islands was hit by an aerial torpedo. Six British planes have failed to return. The first batch of trained pilots from the Netherlands East Indies has just arrived in Britain. They will fly Spitfires given by Free Dutchmen in all parts of the world.