NEW CHAPTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1943, Page 3

NEW CHAPTER

OPENED IN AIR WAR AMERICAN HEAVY BOMBERS FIRST RAID ON GERMANY. ANOTHER BRITISH NIGHT ATTACK ON LORIENT. , LONDON, January 27. United States Flying Fortresses and Liberator fourengine bombers today made their first raid on Germany. The raid was made, in daylight. The Flying Fortresses attacked the naval base of Wilhelmshaven, which was heavily bombed. This followed on the R.A.F.’s night attack on another German naval centre, the U-boat base at Lorient. on the French Atlantic coast—the fifth attack in a fortnight on that objective. The Flying Fortresses, like the Liberatcrs which bombed other targets in north-west Germany, made the trip without any fighter escort. They destroyed a number of challenging German fighters. Three of the United States bombers are missing.

The American airmen have already been congratulated by the chief of the R.A.F. Bomber Command, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris. He described the American attack as a well-planned and gallantly-executed operation, which opened a campaign the Germans had long dreaded. A R.A.F. spokesman disclosed that the weight of bombs thus far dropped on Germany alone is already bigger than the total tonnage Germany has sent down on Britain.