RAIDS LAST FOR MANY HOURS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21229, 27 September 1940, Page 7

RAIDS LAST FOR MANY HOURS

IMPORTANT MILITARY OBJECTIVES ATTACKED FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS CAUSE WIDESPREAD DAMAGE (Official Wireless) (Received Sept. 27, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 26 Last night's long air raid on Berlin is described in an Air Ministry bulletin, which says: From soon after 10 p.m. until the early hours of the morning heavy bombers ot the Royal Air Force kept up a series of attacks on important military objectives in and around Berlin. r Four separate attacks within an hour were made on the Klingenberg power station, in the heart of the industrial section, to the east of the city. This station is known as the gross draftwerk at Klingenberg, and has an output capacity of 300,000 kilowatts and is the power supply source of some of the city’s largest industrial concerns. Sticks of heavycalibre bombs burst on and around the station, followed by an outbreak of fire. The West power station, two miles south of the Tegel See, which had already been heavily damaged in previous raids, was again attacked, and a large fire was started. Salvoes of high explosives were dropped on the Schoneberg railwav yards, three miles south-west of the centre of the city, and on the main railway junction near Charlottenburg. The district is one of the chief residential quarters of the city. In an attack on Berlin’s main airport at Tempelhof, a line of bombs was laid across the north part of the aerodrome, and nearby railway sidings w r ere also bombed. Another raider which arrived over the east outskirts of the city six minutes before midnight cruised above an industrial district for twenty minutes searching for a target under heavy fire from the ground batteries. J After five parachute flares had been released the target, a munition factory at Rudersdorf, seventeen miles east of Berlin, was located and bombed, and fire was seen to break out.

I Planes Return Safely All our aircraft returned safely from extensive bombing operations over Germany and Channel ports last night, states an Air Ministry communique. In Berlin, aircraft of the Bomber Command attacked power stations, railway communications and the Tempelhof Aerodrome. At Kiel the docks were bombed. The goods yards at Osnabruck, Ehrang, Hamm, Oanheim and Hanover were also damaged. Shipping, barges and quayside stores at Antwerp, Flushing, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne were again attacked. Aircraft of the Coastal Command shot down an enemy bomber in the sea yesterday afternoon. Last night forces of the Coastal Command bombed oil tanks at Brest. The tanks were set on fire and shipping in the harbour was also severely damaged. Kiel Dockyard Attacked The strongly-defended naval dockyard at Kiel, in which the Scharnhorst was lying, was attacked last night by a force of heavy bombers. Attacks by individual aircraft were made at intervals over a period of two hours, and many direct hits were scored on the targets. Sticks of heavy-calibre bombs fell across the northern dockyard and one shipbuilding yards, and the brilliant yellow flash of one big explosion was seen very close to the Schamhorst. At Ehrang bomb bursts were seen in the centre of the railway yards and one salvo was followed five minutes later, by a violent explosion. Another great explosion, with a vivid blue flash, is believed to have marked a direct hit on an electrical powerhouse. Flames and heavy explosions on a goods yard signalled the usual nightly bombardment of Hamm and several big fires* were started in a goods yard at Mannheim. Railways Damaged In an attack on Osnabruck many direct hits were scored on tracks at a goods siding, and by the light of fires started in the yard the crew of one of the bombers saw flying debris from a tall chimney which collapsed across the track. Over Germany bombs were also dropped at Lubeck, on the railway yards near Hanover, and on the main line track at Lunen. The canal was straddled and dock gates hit in an attack on the river port of Haltem, south-west of Munster, and at Rendsburg, to the west of Kiel, a factory was bombed and set on fire. The Varel aerodrome and the Warnemunde seaplane base were also attacked. In Belgium heavy and medium bomber forces raided the docks at Antwerp and a large power station at Brussels. Bombs were seen in both cases to explode within the target area. Shipping concentrations and harbour installations at Flushing, Dunkirk, Ostend, Calais and Boulogne were again heavily bombed, the raids starting in the early hours of Thursday morning and continuing until shortly before dawn. Polish crews, operating with the Royal Air Force, took part in the attacks on Ostend, where hits were scored on the main wet docks and the quayside basins in which a number of ships were in line. Attacks Pressed Home The attacks were pressed home from low levels in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire and the glare of many searchlights. In addition to damage caused by high explosive bombs they started heavy fires within the docks by incendiary bombs. Fires and heavy explosions were also reported at Calais by medium bomber crews, who delivered a concentrated attack lasting half-an-hou'r.

] on the lock and shipping basins. ! At Boulogne, which was raided at j intervals for three and a-half hours, • many violent explosions were caused, i One. described as terrific by an obi server, momentarily lit up the whole town. j Great fires were started around the : eight main basins. Several of these, ! whose flames leapt 200 feet into the < air, could be seen by the crews of I aircraft approaching the target from : fifty miles out at sea.