AIR OFFENSIVE AGAINST GERMANY AND OCCUPIED TERRITORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1943, Page 3

AIR OFFENSIVE AGAINST GERMANY AND OCCUPIED TERRITORY

Night and Day of Heavy Raids 700 R.A.F. BOMBERS BLAST KREFELD FLYING FORTRESSES SMASH TARGETS IN RUHR AND BELGIUM LONDON, -June 22. Western Germany has had a series of heavy raids during last night and today. More than 700 bombers were over the Ruhr last night, when the R.A.F. made a heavy and concentrated attack on Krefeld. Early this morning, American FlyingFortresses went in strength to the Ruhr, where they attacked a synthetic rubber factory. Another force raided an industrial target near Antwerp. Squadrons of Allied fighters covered these operations. Mitchell bombers made a daylight attack on the docks at Rotterdam. More than 700 bombers took part in last night’s R.A.F. raid on Krefeld, in the Ruhr, a town with a population of 170,000. Its main industries are steel works, coal mines, chemical works and a textile factory making parachutes. Of the bombers which took part in the raid 34 are missing. Also last night Beaufighters were out on intruder patrols, and fighter-bombers attacked Poix airfield, near Amiens in France, for the third time in the last two days. While the western fringe of the Axis industrial area was smouldering and shuddering-tonight after an almost 24 hours’ non-stop air offensive, American Flying Fortresses today flew to the Ruhr to smash a synthetic rubber factory. They went without escort and penetrated strong anti-aircraft and fighter defences. The raid was the first American penetration in strength to the Ruhr. The factory supplied a considerable percentage of Germany’s synthetic rubber and is the second largest factory of that kind in the whole of Axis Europe. The Germans tried to camouflage the target by planting trees and building mounds of earth on top of the buildings, but the Americans found the target. Sheets of flame and volumes of thick smoke rose thousands of feet from the inferno caused by the bombing. Another formation of Flying Fortresses attacked a motor plant near Antwerp in Belgium. The results are officially described as good. While .the Fortresses’ attack was in progress, R.A.F. Mitchell bombers were attacking the docks at Rotterdam. Squadrons of fighters covered the withdrawal of the Fortresses. When the latter were flying over Holland, German fighters came up to attack them, but as soon as the Spitfires appeared they flew away and the Fortresses got back without being molested. In the three daylight raids 20 bombers and four fighters are missing.