STETTIN BOMBED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1941, Page 5

STETTIN BOMBED

SUPPLY BASE FOR EASTERN FRONT MUCH DAMAGE DONE. LIGHT FROM THE AURORA BOREALIS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 20. Bomber Command aircraft last night attacked the Baltic port of Stettin, an important enemy supply base for the Eastern Front. Stettin is some 641 miles from London. Targets in northern Germany were also attacked.

The Air Ministry news service states that a number of four-engined bombers took part in the attack on Stettin. For much of the journey the bombers flew over thick cloud, but the weather at the time was very difficult. "We could easily see the river leading down to the port and the docks,” said the captain of one Halifax. “The town itself was perfectly plain and flashes from the guns lit up the streets. There were fires already burning when we got there and we started more fires ourselves. It was a dark night and flares were need to find the targets. There were a dozen flares in the sky at the same time, and it was easy *to see the railways, docks and buildings."

The aurora borealis was seen by many crews, though one gunner thought that the aurora was searchlights ahead of him and reported it as such to his captain. One pilot made a bombing run into the light of the aurora just as one runs up into the moon to get a better view of the ground. “You could see all the waterways clearly,” he said. “Much damage was done.”

The Air Ministry states that a Blenheim bomber scored four hits on a small supply ship in the Bay of Biscay yesterday. In an offensive over occupied territory and the Channel two Messerschmitts were destroyed. German troops and trains carrying war supplies were machine-gunned.