SMASHING BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1943, Page 3

SMASHING BLOW

R.A.F. NIGHT ATTACK ON MUNICH FIRES SEEN 300 MILES AWAY WIDESPREAD DAYLIGHT OPERATIONS. OVER FRANCE AND HOLLAND. LONDON, October 3. An attack on Munich last night by the R.A.F. was concentrated into 25 minutes. Ten 4,0001 b. bombs were dropped every minute. Fires started by the bombers could be seen 300 miles away. Vivid explosions lit up the rolling smoke clouds. The Germans used their new flare technique on a big scale. Enemy night fighters were active. The bombers were helped by' thick clouds. Mines were also laid in enemy waters and targets in the Ruhr and Rhineland wer bombed. Nine of our aircraft are missing. Munich is an important industrial centre and is the meeting place of a -net-work of railways. The daylight air offensive was continued today. It was the heaviest for some time. Twenty Axis aircraft were shot down. Eleven Allied planes were lost, but two of the pilots are safe. American Marauders, escorted by British, Allied and Dominion Spitfires, attacked an airfield in Holland. Another force went for an airfield about 30 miles from Paris. The escorting Spitfires brought all the bombers back safely.

One enemy bomber was destroyed over Britain last night. It was part of a small force which dropped bombs on the south-east area. One or two enemy machines penetrated the London area and air-raid sirens were sounded, but no bombs were dropped. AT LONG RANGE AMERICANS BOMB GERMANY AND AUSTRIA. FROM BASES IN NORTH AFRICA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 1. American heavy bombers from North-west Africa raided Germany and Austria in daylight for the first time a few hours after Allied troops rolled into Naples. They bombed the Munich area and a Messerschmitt factory near Vienna. The raids involved a round flight of 1800 miles —the longest yet from Northwest African bases.