BRITISH BOMBING ATTACK ON KIEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1941, Page 5

BRITISH BOMBING ATTACK ON KIEL

German Naval Stronghold Blasted for Five Hours BIG AREA BECOMES SINGLE SHEET OF FLAME HAVOC IN SUBMARINE BUILDING YARD In an attack on Kiel on Monday night, British bombers, the 8.8. C. reports, carried the heaviest load of bombs ever taken to Germany in a single night. Although Kiel is one of the most strongly defended areas in Germany, hundreds of tons of high explosive and 30,000 incendiary bombs were showered down in a five-hour attack, which resulted in a blaze that could be seen from Heligoland. * An area of a mile square was a single sheet of flame. The submarine building yard suffered and a great building in the shipyard was seen to collapse. No fire brigade, said a pilot, could hope to combat all the fires. Another pilot said the only way to put out the fires would have been to push the whole place into the sea. Many pilots had difficulty in finding vacant spaces between the fires on which to drop their bombs. Kiel is at present being visited by a Japanese naval mission. The R.A.F. also carried out smaller raids on Bremerhaven and Emden. Four British planes were lost.