HAVOC IN HAMBURG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1943, Page 4

HAVOC IN HAMBURG

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE DONE IN U-BOAT BUILDING YARDS EFFECTIVE BLOWS STRUCK. IN BATTLE OF ATLANTIC. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10,2.5 a.m.) RUGBY. July 28. The clay and night battle of Hamburg—the joint assault by forces of the Bomber Command and the American Eighth Air Force —was continued last night. This sixth attack in 72 hours was the heaviest of all and was even faster than the 2,300 ton attack on July 24, which lasted for 50 minutes, states the Air Ministry News Ser-

vice- , , r,. Last night Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris planned to save five minutes, and a weight of bombs just over the record tonnage was dropped in three-quarters of an hour. Every cut in the bombing period means greater destruction and greater safety for the men in the aircraft. With the Germans reinforcing the defences of Hamburg as fast as possible—the crews reported more searchlights and flak last night than ever before and night fighters were risking their own barrage to engage the bombers over the target —every minute counts, but every minute saved tests the organisation of the Bomber Command to the utmost. Nowadays if a bomber is two or three minutes later on the take-off it must stay behind, so exactly planned is every attack. Hamburg was photographed at midday yesterday. Fires were still burning in the docks then and there was still light to guide the bombers again last night, but the great pall of smoke that hung over the city for several days has dispersed. New photographs, clear of smoke, amply confirm the great extent and importance of the industrial damage which had been detected with some difficulty in the earlier air photographs. At least nine very important buildings in the great Blohm and' Voss submarine building yards were hit. One dry dock in the yard was sunk and another has heeled over. Hits on the Howaltswerke submarine yards could also be seen. The aircraft crews are all convinced that last night’s attack was even more destructive than that of three nights before. The targets in Hamburg cover a large area and require persistent attacks. At least one submarine a week is built, in the three main yards and their various subsidiaries. If the production of submarines in Hamburg could be stopped or delayed, an effective blow would be struck in the Battle of the Atlantic.

69 ENEMY FIGHTERS SHOT DOWN BY AMERICANS. OPPOSITION SWEPT ASIDE. LONDON, July 28. At least 60 enemy fighters were shot down by American heavy bombers in their daylight raids on Central and Western Germany. Thunderbolts, which escorted the Fortresses part of the way, accounted for nine more. The American bombers attacked an aircraft factory 30 miles south of Magdeburg, in Central Germany, and one at Kassel, in Western Germany. The Germans sent up swarms of fighters, and the bombers met the strongest fighter opposition ever encountered. They fought their way through and dropped the bombs where they wanted to. FIGHTERS ACTIVE CO-OPERATION WITH DAY BOMBERS. FEW ENEMY INTERCEPTORS SEEN (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY. July 28. Fighter Command aircraft attacked enemy airfields on the third day in succession today, whne a largescale sweep, timed to coincide with a raid by American Flying Fortresses in North-West Germany, was made over areas in Holland, Belgium and France, states the Air Ministry news service. Besides giving protective cover to the limit of fighter range as the Fortresses flew in and returned, American Thunderbolts and Spitfire squadrons went to escort Bostons bombing targets in Amsterdam and also American medium bombers .attacking an industrial plant at Zeebrugge. German fighters did not come up to interfere. Typhoons made excellent bombing attacks on the Coutrai and Merville airfields, with 500-pounders. At Courtrai bombs exploded across the airfield and among dispersals and one burst in a railway siding nearby. At Merville, a brilliant flash followed the explosion of several bombs on dispersal points. Other bombs fell across the airfield. The only German fighters seen were observed by Spitfires as they met the Fortresses returning south of Rotterdam. These dived away to safety when the R.A.F. planes appeared, although there is no doubt they had been waiting to attack the bombers.