SMASHING ASSAULT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 February 1943, Page 3

SMASHING ASSAULT

THOUSAND TONS OF BOMBS DROPPED ON LORIENT IN LESS THAN TWO HOURS. U-BOAT BASE LEFT A MASS OF FLAMES. LONDON, February 14. 11l a R.A.F. raid last night on Hitler’s U-boat base of Lorient, Stirlings, Halifaxes and Lancasters dropped more than 1,000 tons of bombs. It was all over in less than two hours. That was what the Air Ministry meant by very heavy and concentrated attacks. The R.A.F. went over twice, as it did in its raid on Lorient last Sunday. The first wave arrived over the target in bright moonlight, just before 8.15 o’clock. As the second wave of bombers came over the pilots saw the glow of fires when they were still 160 miles from the target. They found the dock area a mass of flames. Smoke from one fire was rising to 15,000 feet. The flak was fairly intense at first, but when the second wave of raiders came over it had fallen off. When the last bombs crashed down just before 10 o’clock flames had been roaring from dock buildings and installations for nearly two hours, with red smoke bellowing across the target. A Halifax pilot who took part in the second raid stayed over the target for 15 minutes to make a special report. His attack was on the western side of the river and within a few minutes huge fires spread amid the long buildings lining the dock. Six or seven buildings were blazing from ehd to end and two more were in flames on the eastern side of the river. A squadron leader said one group of fires, right in i the middle of the dock area, spread out and merged to make one huge carpet of flames. Lorient is the most important German submarine base on the Atlantic coast. Apart from the construction of U-boat pens (roofed over with massive concrete) the Germans have enlarged the harbour installations to provide services for supplying, refueling and repairing submarines. It was into this highly concentrated target that the R.A.F. dropped its 1000 tons of bombs. In their heaviest raids on London the Germans could only put down 450 tons, spread over the huge metropolitan area. Squadron Leader Nettleton, V.C., who led the daylight raid on Ausburg, was in command of the Lancasters gaged in the raid on Lorient. Besides the 1,000-ton raid on Lorient, the R.A.F. last' night also dropped bombs on Western Germany and fighters were out over Northern France. The whole night’s offensive cost eight bombers. In dog fights over the Channel this afternoon Typhoons shot down four German Focke Wulf 190 s. Two British planes are missing.