IN STRONG FORCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1942, Page 3

IN STRONG FORCE

BRITISH BOMBING RAIDS ON GERMANY & OCCUPIED FRANCE. ATTACK ON AERO ENGINE FACTORY. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) ' (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 6. It is authoritatively stated that 300 bombers attacked Germany and France last night. The main attack was against the Rhineland, other objectives being the docks at Le Havre and the Gnomer-Hone Works at Gennevilliers, near Paris, which is an importantcentre for the manufacture of enemy aero engines and other war equipment. Five bombers are missing.

FRENCH PRODUCTION 5,000 PLANES A YEAR FOR GERMANY. DISCLOSURES BY DE GAULLE HEADQUARTERS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.16 a.m.) RUGBY, April 6. The importance of the bombing attack on the Gnome-Rhone Aero Engine Works is illustrated by fresh evidence of the military aid being rendered to the Axis Powers by the Vichy Government whch has just reached Free French Headquarters. General Bergeret, the Vichy Air Minister, stated that the Vichy Air Force numbers . about 1,000 modern planes and that it is proposed to build this force up within the framework of the Armistice Convention. The facts are that aircraft production in 1942 is scheduled to reach 6,000 planes for the two zones, 5,000 to go to Germany and 1,000 to Vichy. Thearetically, production in the unoccupied zone is reserved for Vichy, but the Germans maintain the right to take aircraft from the unoccupied zone, if the production figures, in occupied France fall below schedule. Thus Frenchmen in-aircraft factories in unoccupied France work under the delusion that whatever they turn out will stay in France. They are not told that there is every chance of their production being seized by the Germans. on the grounds that the factories in the occupied zone have not been operating at the required speed. Other factories arc also turning out aeroplane engines for the Germans, while torpedoes are being made for them at Toulon and for the Italians at St. Tropez, under the surveillance of the Armistice Commission.