NEW PEAK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1943, Page 3

NEW PEAK

IN AIR ONSLAUGHT ON GERMANY BERLIN AND LUDWIGSHAFEN BLASTED AT NIGHT. AND WESTERN REICH BY DAY. LONDON, November 19. ; During the last 24 hours the air offensive against Germany has been stepped up to a new peak. The greatest number of ' heavy bombers ever sent out struck last night at Berlin and at Ludwigshafen, the latter place being attacked for the second night in succession. Today Flying Fortresses attacked Western Germany. They were escorted by fighters, but no opposition was met and all the Allied aircraft returned safely from these daylight operations. The occasion was the first on which major attacks had been made on two targets in Germany on the same night, with Berlin as target No. 1. The loss of 32 bombers is described officially as a very small percentage of the large forces engaged. The attack on Berlin was concentrated into a period of 30 minutes. weather was bad over the target, and heavy cloud lay over the target area. Seven hundred tons of high-explosives were dropped in two-ton “block-bust-ers” alone. Over Ludwigshafen the weather was clear ,and the bomber crews saw many heavy explosions and quickly spreading fires. Civil defence workers were still clearing up at Ludwigshafen after Wednesday night’s raid, when oui’ bdmbers struck again at the great German inland port. On the previous big raid on Berlin, 50 tons of bombs were dropped every minute for 20 minutes. That raid wrecked 100 of Berlin’s factories and many electrical and engineering plants. FIRES SEEN GLOWING OVER WIDE AREA IN BERLIN. EXPERIENCES OF BOMBER CREWS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, November 19. Over 350 4,000-pound bombs fell on Berlin last night, says the Air Ministry news service. By making major attacks on two great industrial cities in the same night, the R.A.F. Bomber Command set a new record and by attacking targets as far afield as Berlin and the Upper Rhineland it imposed a great strain on the air defence of Germany. An all-Lancaster force, including Australian and Canadian squadrons, attacked Berlin in difficult weather.- All the way from the Dutch coast to the target, cloud covered much of the ground. Bombing was strictly on a target lit by indicators. Fires glowed over a wide area and a series of violent explosions burst through the clouds even at moment when the flashes of the 4,000-pounders were hidden. Only occasionally, when the clouds shifted, could fires be seen. Beginning just before 9 p.m., the attack lasted for half an hour. The weather made it difficult for the enemy to deploy a large force of night fighters and many of' the bomber crews reported no signs of fighters. Others had brief and inconclusive encounters. Searchlights were blocked by the clouds, and flak, while intense, was mostly in a crude barrage form.

On the way back every town the bombers passed seemed to be roused by the news of the attack on Berlin. A pilot said the whole of Germany seemed to be alive with gun flashes. It was difficult flying weather, a temperature of minus 41 being recorded above the clouds. Icing sometimes affected gun turrets and clouded windows.

RECORD FIGURE

OF BOMBS DROPPED ON ONE NIGHT. 2500 TONS ON BERLIN & LUDWIGSHAFEN. (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) LONDON, November 19. It is believed that the R.A.F. ,/ dropped over 2500 tons of bombs on Berlin and Ludwigshafen last night. The previous bombload dropped on Germany in one night, according to available figures, was 2300 tons on Hamburg on July 22. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper “Afton Bladet” says the R.A.F bombers struck mainly against the outskirts of Berlin, where a considerable number of war factories are concentrated. A German High Command communique states: “Enemy bombers last night raided' several places in Western and Northern Germany, including Berlin. Mannheim.”