NINTH THIS MONTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1942, Page 3

NINTH THIS MONTH

R.A.F. ATTACK ON WESTERN GERMANY

LARGE FIRES STARTED IN RUHR.

THIRTY-NINE BOMBERS FAIL TO RETURN.

LONDON, September 17.

The R.A.F. again raided Western Germany -in very strong force last night. The Ruhr was the main objective. Many fires were caused, some of them very large.

Earlier last evening other bombers raided the Upper Rhineland, where they attacked industrial targets at Wiesbaden.

Out of the very . strong force of bombers taking part in the night’s operations, 39 are missing. Last night’s raid was the ninth on western Germany this month. Losses have been heavy but, in the words of a correspondent, the R.A.F. has never carried out so many big attacks in sb brief a time.

The loss of 39 aircraft last night is the heaviest since June 25, when 52 aircraft were lost in a thousand bomber raid on Bremen, a British Official Wireless message states. Last night’s raid was the ninth heavy attack in the first sixteen nights of September. Commenting on the cumulative effects of these raids, the “Telegraph” says: “The congestion of manufactures and of coal and iron mines in the Ruhr and Rhineland has hardly a parallel in any other country. No dispersal can alter the fact that the efficiency of this region is indispensable to the military power of Germany.” This afternoon a few enemy fighters dropped bombs on a place on the south coast of England. ..Some damage and a few casualties were caused. One enemy plane was shot down by fighters. Anti-aircraft guns were active yesterday over the Straits of Dover against approaching enemy planes. The raiders are reported to ‘have been intercepted by R.A.F. fighters. German long-range guns fired five shells across the straits into the Dover area yesterday afternoon.