FIERCE ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1941, Page 5

FIERCE ATTACK

ON NAZI BATTLE-CRUISERS i LYING IN BREST DOCKS SHIPS STRADDLED BY HEAVY BOMBS. DROPPED FROM LOW LEVEL. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 5. A vivid description by R.A.F. pilots of the clear view of the two German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau lying in Brest harbour is given in a further Air Ministry news service account of last night’s bombing raid. A powerful force of aircraft of the Bomber Command was sent over in favourable weather and though the main attack was concentrated on the dry dock, in which one of the ships is being refitted, and one quay beside which the other is moored, severe damage was done to other parts of this important naval base. On one quay at the torpedo boat base stores of oil were set alight and burned with dull red flames under a blanket of a heavy black smoke. Many warehouses were seen burning. A very fierce fire, the flames from which shot 100 feet into the air and continued for 25 minutes, probably came from an oil tanker which had been hit. Close beside one of the battle-cruisers was raging a fire which could be seen 80 miles out at sea.

There was little cloud and visibility was good, in spite of an occasional ground haze. The reflection of the moon in the water helped to define the darker outlines of the docks and quays It was not difficult to find the two battle-cruisers, but to make it yet more certain to recognise them our aircraft dropped flares. Defying the fierce barrage, to which the guns of the warships contributed, our pilots came down to as low at 1000 feet. Ano pilot claimed either a direct hit or a very near miss. Another of our aircraft dropped a stick of bombs from a height of 1000 feet across the battle-cruiser moored to the quay. As this bomber came in. a flare dropped by another aircraft showed the crew the exact position. The pilot flew right over the top and then dropped a flare. He said: “It was a beauty. We could see both battle-cruisers distinctly and I picked the one alongside the quay.” The bomber went round in a great left-hand turn, circling and losing height rapidly till just north of the ship. Then the pilot went straight in. “All I could see was the battle-cruiser," he said. “It was like standing at the end of a pier and looking down on a ship a little distance out." All details of the ship could be seen, the control lower, guns and even smaller details. Then they saw one of the ship’s guns open fire. Then the bomber dropped its bombs in tight, sticks, so that they should fall close together. The gunner saw a huge flash of flame go up about 20 or 30 yards from the ship and there was a sudden blaze of fire. It completely blotted out all the later bursts so that it was impossible to see where the other bombs had fallen, but the pilot’s opinion was: “If they all missed from that height it was a very lucky ship.” Many attacks were also made from a higher level and a majority of the bombs were seen to straddle both bat-tle-cruisers. Among these bombs were a number of the most powerful ever used against a target of this nature.