LEFT BLAZING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1942, Page 3

LEFT BLAZING

GERMAN INDUSTRIAL CITY OF MAINZ HUNDREDS OF TONS OF EXPLOSIVES AND 50,000 INCENDIARIES. DROPPED BY BRITISH BOMBERS. LONDON, August 12. A strong force of R.A.F. bombers dropped hundreds of tons of bombs and more than 50,000 incendiaries on Mainz, a great industrial city at the junction of the Rhine and the Main. The city has railway ■wagon workshops, chemical factories and 64 warehouses. An airman states that within four minutes of the opening of the attack three large fires were raging. By the end of the attack there were more fires than could be counted. A daylight reconnaissance the next day showed dense smoke still rising to 15,000 feet. Bombers also attacked Coblenz, 50 'miles away, as well as the docks at 'Le Havre and airfields in the Low Countries. Sixteen bombers were lost. One German raider was shot down last night when scattered raids were most on the south-east coast of England. Eight persons were killed when a surface shelter received a direct hit. Two churches were among the buildings damaged. RAIDS ON BRITAIN ENEMY BOMBER DESTROYED. •’(British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, August 12. Before midnight a small number of enemy aircraft dropped bombs on pla- ■ ces on the south coast of England. Some damage and casualties were caused, including eight persons killed. Later aircraft bombed scattered points in eastern and northern England and the East Midlands, where damage and casualties were slight. One enemy bomber was destroyed.