DAMACE AT PLOESTI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1941, Page 6

DAMACE AT PLOESTI

DESCRIBED AS TERRIFIC ! OVER MILLION TONS OF OIL DESTROYED. | IN RED AIR FORCE RAIDS. (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, July 30. A Moscow radio message says political refugees from Rumania have confirmed the terrific damage at Ploesti. Over one million tons cf oil in storage tanks has been destroyed by fire as a result of Red air forces raids. Many refineries were completely destroyed and derricks damaged. The oilfields have burned for four weeks, the glow of fires and the pall of smoke providing,an easy target for the bombers. The oilfields will be unable to provide more than half their usual output for at least six months, even if there are no more raids. Large oil depots have been destroyed at Constanta, saboteurs adding to the damage. The German High Command is forced to rely on old stocks of synthetic oil and has stopped the export of oil to Turkey, forcing repudiation of the TurkishRumanian Agreement. ALLEGED SABOTAGE DEATH SENTENCES IN RUSSIA. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) MOSCOW, July 30. A director and three of the executive of the Moscow Motor Supply Trust have been sentenced to death for sabotage and negligence which caused a fire on the trust's premises, resulting in a million roubles worth of damage. MR HARRY HOPKINS ACCOMPANIED BY MILITARY ADVISERS. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 30. Mr Harry Hopkins, accompanied by military advisers, Brigadier-General McMahoney and Captain J. Allison, has arrived in Moscow. HOSTS OF WOUNDED RUMANIAN HOSPITALS CROWDED. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 30. ; A report received at Vichy from • Bucharest says that over 300 military . hospitals in the interior of Rumania f contain 60,000 wounded. The figure ■ does not include German wounded or /those in front line hospitals.