RAIN OF BOMBS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 April 1943, Page 3

RAIN OF BOMBS

POURED DOWN ON DUISBERG CNE OF THE HEAVIEST ATTACKS EVER MADE. WHOLESALE DEVASTATION. LONDON, April 27. An attack on Duisberg by the R.A.F. last night was one of the heaviest and most concentrated raids ever made on German territory. A great force of Stirlings, Ilalifaxes, Lancasters and Wellingtons rained bombs down at the rate of 30 tons a minute for threequarters of an hour. This means that at least 1350 tons of bombs were dropped, more than three times the weight of bombs the Germans ever dropped on ' Loudon in one night.

Duisberg is one of the Ruhr’s most important industrial centres, with large U-boat and aircraft works and vast iron and steel factories. It is also Germany’s principal inland port. The first of the attacking aircraft dropped flares and incendiaries. The anti-aircraft gunfire at the beginning of the raid was as heavy as any met with so far, but in spite of the great strength of the ground defences the bombers pressed home their attack and during its later stages the barrage died down considerably. The bombing was highly concentrated. Seventeen bombers are missing, not a large proportion in view of the magnitude of the raid.

The raid dealt devastation among Duisberg’s miles of docks and many steel and engineering works. Duisberg has been severely battered before, and the Germans have admitted previously that great portions of it no longer remain. Last night’s raid was the 59th and it followed an earlier pounding on April 9, so that the Germans’ words may now present a fairly accurate picture of Duisberg now. This afternoon Fighter Command aircraft badly damaged and probably sank a medium-sized enemy ship, a converted yacht and a barge in the English Channel. All the aircraft returned safely.