SHATTERING ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1943, Page 3

SHATTERING ATTACK

MADE BY ROYAL AIR FORCE ON DORTMUND NEARLY 1,500 TONS OF BOMBS DROPPED. THIRTY AIRCRAFT LOST. LONDON, May 5. Four two-ton bombs were dropped every minute in a big R.A.F. raid on Dortmund last night. The load of bombs also included four-ton ‘‘blockbusters” and tens of thousands of incendiaries. The total weight of bombs dropped was not far short of the 1500 tons which blasted Cologne in the famous thousand-bomber raid. The number of four-engined bombers taking part in last night’s raid was the greatest ever used in a raid on Germany. Thirty bombers did not get back. Reports by the bomber crews mention two particularly big explosions which rattled Dortmund. The whole sky was lit up by the light of flames and a great pall of smoke hung over the city.

The weather was almost ideal when the Bomber Command raided Dortmund last night (a British Official Wireless message reports). There was little cloud on the route and the night was clear. The first aircraft reached the target at about one o’clock and within ten minutes the white glow from incendiaries was turning red as fires caught hold. Soon afterwards a big explosion occurred which was described as “vast” by many of the crews. A second explosion as big as the first occurred about a quarter of an hour later. “It mushroomed up in a vast blow,” a pilot said, “and was followed by a column of smoke which rose about 10,000 feet. The barrage was heavy at the beginning, but slackened off considerably later. Halifaxes, Lancasters, Stirlings and Wellingtons took part.” The R.A.F. has made 25 raids on Dortmund. Last night was the first time the city had a major attack all to itself. Dortmund is one of the chief centres of German steel rolling and is on the main traffic exit at the eastern end of the Ruhr.

With a population in 1937 of 541,000, Dortmund is the largest town in the Ruhr coalfield. It has foundries and manufactures iron goods, including railway stock and machinery. It is the outlet of the 150-milo Dortmund-Ems Canal, which provides an alternative route to the Rhine for Westphalian coal and metallic products. EAGER CREWS AT R.A.F. FIGHTER STATION. SWEEPSTAKE ON THOUSANDTH VICTIM. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, May 4. There is an air of suppressed excitement on the Royal Air Force station at which Alan Deere, Wanganui, is a wing commander. It is caused by the fact that the station’s score of Huns is now 994, or six short of 1000. The chief question is who will shoot down the thousandth, for whoever shoots it down will win a sweepstake to the value of at least £250 in addition to the honour of securing the station’s fourth figure. Deere, of course, is one of the “starters,” but it is his job to lead the wing, which does not give opportunity for individualism. John Checketts, Invercargill, who was recently promoted flight lieutenant, is the only other New Zealander on the station, so he, too, stands a chance. There is also a Fighting French squadron. The wing is flying the latest type of Spitfire.