AIR OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1941, Page 5

AIR OFFENSIVE

R.A.F. DAY AND NIGHT OPERATIONS ENEMY SHIPS BOMBED IN HARBOUR. TWO RAIDERS SHOT DOWN ON BRITISH COASTS. LONDON. July 14. Eight enemy fighters were destroyed by the R.A.F. in three daylight sweeps over Northern France before midday. A successful search for enemy shipping was made this afternoon. Before breakfast the docks and shipping at Cherbourg were attacked, a 6,000-ton merchant ship being set on fire and the railway station damaged. As our planes flew low over the roof tops, crowds in the streets waved to the airmen. In an attack on Lc Havre another 6,000-ton ship was hit. An enemy convoy was attacked off the Frisian Islands and a ship of 6,000 tons received a direct hit, another of 3,000 tons was hit on the stern and an escort vessel of 1,500 tons was hit aft and amidships. Two of our bombers and four of our fighters are missing, but the pilots of two fighters which were seen to collide, baled out. Two German bombers attempting a hit and run raid were shot down before they could do any damage, one by anti-aicraft gun fire on the east coast of Scotland and the other by a fighter off the coast of Wales. There are no reports of any bombs being dropped today. An enemy rrfider machine-gun-ned a train in a north county early this morning and two people were slightly injured. The train completed its journey. British bombers battled through bad weather’ last night and bombed industrial targets over a wide area, especially in Bremen and Begesack. also docks at Amsterdam and Ostend, and oil stores at Rotterdam. Enemy occupied aerodromes in Northern France were attacked by fighters during the night. One bomber failed to return. Enemy raids on this country last night were not on an extensive scale. Some bombs were dropped on the coast and on a town in the Midlands but the casualties were not heavy, though a few people were fatally injured. Air raid casualties in Britain during June were: Killed, 399; injured, 461. Of those killed 175 were men, 160 women and 64 children under 16 years of age.