NEW TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1943, Page 3

NEW TACTICS

IN AIR WAR AGAINST GERMANY FEINT DRAWS FIGHTERS TO BERLIN WHILE R.A.F. BOMBERS BLAST LEIPZIG (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 4. Ail Air Ministry communique says that the Bomber Command was over Germany in strength last night. After a, feint attack on Berlin which drew off enemy fighters, the main force of heavy bombers turned south and dropped 1500 tons of high explosives and incendiaries on Leipzig, 104 miles from Berlin. The bombing was concentrated and effective. Mosquitos attacked objectives in Berlin and mines were laid in enemy waters. Intruders attacked enemy airfields over a wide area. Twenty-three bombers and one fighter are missing. The R.A.F. bombers suddenly turned south for Leipzig when only a few miles from Berlin. Fighters had been trying to intercept them nearly all the way, first in a brilliantly clear sky and then in thick cloud which rose to two or three miles. But at the turning point most of the fighters seemed to have lost the main R.A.F. force and while the British bombers were flying to Leipzig they were hastening to defend Berlin. Some of the fighters reached Leipzig before the bombing was over, but they were too few to become a real factor in the battle. In the main, Leipzig had to fight it out with searchlights and guns. As the attack was coming to an end night fighter squadrons arrived. Their flares began to fall, but it was then too late. The bombers were already on their way home. ENEMY BADLY MISLED The battle with the fighters grew fiercer as the bombers approached Berlin. Before the R.A.F. bombers turned south to their real target, the enemy used scores of flares along the route, which, according to the pilot of a Halifax, lit the sky for 80 to 100 miles. It was a swift and concentrated attack in thick cloud by Lancasters and Halifaxes. The Canadian bomber group sent many aircraft of both types, and Lancasters were out from three Australian squadrons. A minute or two before 4 a.m., the pathfinders began laying target indicators. Though cloud was drifting all the time the attack was taking place and was seldom less than 8000 ft. high, the brilliant target indicators clearly guided the bombers to their objectives, and in a short time fires had sprung up and were tightly packed. Several fighters were destroyed, and one accounted for two Junkers 88s. The attack was planned so that the bombers would not be over German territory before the moon set at 10.30 p.m. As the aircraft returned to England the sun was rising.

This afternoon a reconnaisasnce pilot over Leipzig reported fires evidently out of control. Smoke was rising to 20,000 ft. and was blowing a very great distance out into the country. Hq recrossed the German frontier before he saw the last of the smoke.

AN IMPORTANT TARGET Leipzig was last attacked on October 21. The Press'Association says that the Bomber Command again directed attention to Leipzig because of the settlement there of vital German war industries which had been bombed out of the Ruhr. The city had many important war plants before the new acquisitions to its main industry, the manufacture of aircraft components, in which more than 20 firms were engaged. It also has aircraft assembly plants, motor transport, machine-tools, textile and chemical works, and is one of the most important transport centres in German}', as well as a vital junction for war traffic for the Russian front. This is the first time the Bomber Command has made a feint attack. On a number of occasions diversionary raids by a smaller number of bombers have deceived the German defences, and the bomber force on other raids has hoodwinked the defences by taking a course leading to the belief that an entirely different target was the aim. Last night, however, new tactics were introduced. The number of bombers lost—23—is an indication of the success of the feint.

The German news agency says that a terror attack on Leipzig caused devastation in some parts of the town.

SMASHING BLOW

ELEVEN GERMAN BOMBERS DESTROYED BY BRITISH FIGHTERS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 4. Home-based R.A.F. Typhoon fighters on offensive operations this afternoon destroyed eleven Dorniers without loss to themselves. The only damage suffered by the Typhoons, which met and attacked a force of about 14 German bombers, was a bullet hole in one aircraft.