AT HIGH PRESSURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1943, Page 3

AT HIGH PRESSURE

ALLIED AIR OFFENSIVE 1500 TONS OF BOMBS DROPPED ON CASSEL IN R.A.F. NIGHT ATTACK. FLYING FORTRESSES RAID FRANKFURT. LONDON, October 4. Last night the R.A.F. attacked the big industrial town of Cassel. The bombers dropped 1,500 tons of bombs in liall'-an-hour. The bombs caused great damage. Twentytour planes are missing.

R.A.F. Mosquitoes went to Hanover and also bombed other objectives in the Rhineland. More mines were laid in enemy waters. Canadian Mosquitoes were out over Northern France and the Low Countries on intruder patrols. With a population of 200,000 Cassel is a town of considerable importance to the German war effort. It manufactures locomotives, boilers, armoured fighting vehicles and lorries, and is the home of an aircraft plant manufacturing Focke-Wulfs. The last heavy raid on Cassel was in August last year, when the Eder dam was breached. The raid completed a week of intense night bombing over Germany by the R.A.F., when the targets included Hanover, Bochum, Emden and Munich.

As the result of dawn to dusk attacks by Allied fighters over France, Belgium and Holland, 24 enemy planes were destroyed for the loss of four medium bombers and 11 fighters. American Flying Fortresses based on Britain gave Frankfurt its first daylight raid today. United States Thunderbolts went with them and shot down 19 enemy aircraft. How many bombers were lost is not yet known. Not one of the fighters is missing. There was slight enemy activity over England last night, mainly over East Anglia. One enemy plane was destroyed. There was a short alert in London for the second night running, but no incidents are reported. GLOOMY VIEW ON AIR WAR POSITION. TAKEN BY UNITED STATES CONGRESSMAN. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) NEW YORK, October 3. “The Allies have temporarily lost their mastery of the skies over western Europe, and any hope of bombing Germany from the war within the next few months is wishful thinking,” said Representative Will Rogers, of Los Angeles. He added: ‘Now that Germany has accumulated an unbelievable number of anti-aircraft guns it is suicide for bombing missions below 15,000 feet. The Germans are concentrating all their aircraft production on fighter planes, and the investment is beginning to pay. The Allies laughed when the Germans first used rockets on fighting planes, but the returning pilots did not laugh. They are meeting fighters equipped with one to eight rockets, which are used effectively.”