AT FULL BLAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 October 1943, Page 3

AT FULL BLAST

ALLIED DAY AND NIGHT AIR OFFENSIVE GREAT DAMAGE DONE IN GERMANY FOCKE-WULF FACTORY SMASHED. 350 ENEMY FIGHTERS DESTROYED LAST WEEK. LONDON, October 10. The Allied air offensive from Britain was continued today. American heavy bombers flew to Germany in daylight for the third day running. The target was in Western Germany, but no details have been released so far.

American aircraft shot down JOB German fighters last week and the R.A.F. accounted for 49 more. The virtual destruction of the FockeWulf assembly plant was achieved in yesterday's American raid on Marienburg. Heavy damage was also done to a factory at Stettin making Focke-Wulf components. When Mosquitoes were proceeding 'to Berlin last night they saw huge fires still raging in Hanover, 24 hours after Friday night's attack by heavy bombers. HEAVY ONSLAUGHT MADE BY AMERICAN BOMBERS. ON EAST PRUSSIA & POLAND. LONDON, October 10. In the deepest penetration so far made into Germany, American Flying Fortresses and Liberators in daylight yesterday swept 100 miles into East Prussia and also bombed targets in north-east Germany and Poland. Their first target was Marienburg in East Prussia, where a factory producing FockeWulf 190's was bombed. At Stettin a factory producing FockeWulf components was attacked. The twin Baltic ports of Danzig and Gdynia were also hammered. For more than a year the Germans have been developing Gdynia as a major naval base, and several German warships are believed to have been in port when the attack was made. Bombs fell on harbour installations. German fighter opposition was fierce, but 91 were shot down for the loss of 29 bombers. Thunderbolts attacked targets in Belgium. R.A.F. Mosquitoes last night raided Berlin without loss and others attacked targets in France, losing four bombers. BREMEN BATTERED FIERCE BATTLE OVER CITY. 142 NAZI FIGHTERS SHOT DOWN. RUGBY, October 9. A strong formation of flying Fortresses and Liberators attacked an aircraft factory, port facilities and shipbuilding yards at Bremen, north-west Germany, and submarine installations at Vegesack, 10 miles north-west of Bremen, yesterday, according to an announcement from the United States headquarters. Thunderbolts furnished support and cover for the Fortresses. Strong opposition was encountered, the Germans apparently using new tactics against the heavy bombers, but 130 enemy fighters were destroyed by them and the Thunderbolts destroyed 12. From these operations, 30 bombers and three fighters are missing. The United States bomber crews, in spite of the ferocity of the battle over Bremen were jubilant over the results of the operations. Fighters and flak over the city did not prevent the bombers pounding their loads on the target areas, which soon became wrapped in dense smoke The chief target was an aircraft factory which turns out Junkers 87’s, and Stuka dive-bombers. Another target was the important Deschimag shipbuilding yards. The forces which bombed Vegesack aimed at submarine installations. Some of the 130 fighters destroyed appeared to be armed with rocket guns. Fortress crews claim that an attitional 50 were probably destroyed and 42 damaged. Thunderbolt pilots reported that fighters attacked savagely, apparently to enable the rocket-gunned interceptors to get at the bombers. The Berlin radio says that strong Allied air forces terror-raided northwest German coastal territory on Friday. Large-scale destruction was caused in the centre of Bremen and residential quarters and public buildings were damaged. There were heavy civilian casualties. R.A.F. BOMBING ATTACKS. The German air defences seemed to be in two minds on Friday night when the Bomber Command made a double attack, says the Air Ministry. The major attack was on Hanover, but another force of heavy bombers went to Bremen—which had been bombed by the U.S.A.A.F. a few hours before—and in a quarter of an hour had dropped a great weight of bombs. Crews in the r>ain force could see the Germans laying flares over Bremen as they swept on their way to Hanover, while at Hanover itself things were comparatively quiet when the first bomber reached its target. Fires in Hanover grew steadily in spite of all the efforts of the fighters to break up the concentration of bombers. Smoke began to pour up into the sky. After the attack had been going on for some little time, a huge explosion was seen in the target area. There was a brilliant blue flash, followed by a plume of black smoke which shot up into the air and then gradually spread out over the sky. Armament, engineering, aircraft component, textile and chemical works make Hanover one of the most important of Germany’s industrial centres. It is also an important railway junction on the line between Berlin and the west. One of the bombers previously reported missing is now known to be safe.