EARLIER ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1942, Page 3

EARLIER ATTACKS

ON WAR ESTABLISHMENTS NEAR PARIS WORKING FOR THE GERMANS. RUBBER FACTORY & POWER PLANT DESTROYED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 30. A Vichy message states that the R.A.F. last night destroyed the Goodrich rubber factory in the Parisian suburb of Colombes and also razed the Gennevilliers power station which supplies the factories in the whole industrial area northwest of Paris. Forty were killed and 100 injured in the R.A.F. attack, which lasted from 2 a.m. to 4.20 a.m. The R.A.F. also attacked the GnomeRhone aero-engine works at Gennevilliers, which was heavily attacked on two nights during April. Considerable damage was done. The importance to the enemy of the Gnome-Rhone works and other factories beside it is clearly shown by the new defences which the British bomber crews found there last night. These were chiefly light anti-aircraft guns, but there were heavy guns as well and many searchlights. Night fighters were also seen. The attack, states the Air Ministry news service, began in good weather, but the bombers had to search for the target between patches of scurrying cloud. The crews pin-pointed the works from the bends of x the River Seine and other conspicuous landmarks. Then they flew low in the face of flak to make accurate bombing. “As we came in,” said one pilot, “my rear gunner saw a Messerschmitt 110 following. It was out of range, and before it could close in I shoved the nose of my machine down and we slammed into a patch of cloud below us. Then we circled over Paris. We saw the Gnome-Rhone works clearly in the moonlight and made our run. The factory was dead in the bombsight when the bombs were released. The reflection from the bursting bombs was startlingly clear in the river.” The Fighter Command also attacked other targets in occupied territoy. One pilot saw bombs strike on six goods trains near Lens. The engines were stopped and the trucks blazed. Other pilots attacked and dislocated vital railway traffic. — —J—AREA OF DEVASTATION INSPECTED BY LAVAL. VICHY, May 31. The Premier, M. Laval, visited the. scene of the R.A.F. raid near Paris, and saw the widespread devastation.. The casualties are now 80 killed and 200 injured. Two hundred houses were destroyed in one suburb alone.