Evening star., 1942-03-05
Plants Badly Damaged
In Paris Air Attack,
Vichy Official Admits
Renoult Motor Foetoy
Revealed as WORKING
For Germans

| BY the Associated Press.
VICHY, Unoccupied France,
March 5.-Three Of Frances biggest
motor and aircraft works were dam
aged severely by the tremendous
British bombardment Tuesday night
of the German Paris in
dustrial area, with 600 or more per-
sons killed and 1000 wounded, 1t was
announced last night by a high
Vichy government official. who
watched the raid.
Capt. Jean Fontaine, naval officer
and chief of Vice Premier Darlan's
secretariat, named the Renault,
Salmson, and Farman plants as
heavily hit by r. A. F. bombers
which swooped so low he thought
they might plunge through the roof
Of the fifth-floor apartment in the
Auteuil section OF Paris from which
he witnessed the attack.
The Renault plant, which was
turning out trucks for the Germans,
burned so flercely that the whole
moonlit sky glowed red, he said.
Renault installations on an island
in the Seine and on the right bank
were hit hard.
CThe dispatch did not say
what abe Salmson and Farman
factories weer making, but the
British said all were busy on
tanks, planes, engines and trucks
for the German Army.
Coming through the French
censorship, Capt. Fontaines ac-
count was highly unusual In any
case. since 1t identified the fac.
tories, acknowledged heavy dam
age, and admitted that Renault
was working for the Germans0
Area "Plastered" With Bombs.
Capt. Fontaine, who was Just
across the river from the lombard
ment, said that in q long naval
military career he never before had
seen such a sight. He described
leaping, cracking flames, trapped
victims screaming for help. and the
entire western suburban area from
Saint German to Issy "plastered"
with bombs.
Capt. Fontaine said that when he
left the still-smoking scene at noon
to return to Vichy the toll stood at
500 or 600 dead and 1000 or more
wounded and that the list was in
creasing steadily as bodies were dug
from the debris.
OF the wounded. he said about
300 were In critical condition. Thou
sands of persons were declared 10
be homeless.
(The German-operated Parts
radio, in a broadcast recorded by
the Exchange Telegraph agency
in London, said at least 1,500 were
killed, hundreds wounded and
whole districts razedD
Marshal Petain, French chief Of
state, likened the bombing to "a ma
tional catastrophe"
Wave of Anti British Feeling.
A wave of anti-British feeling was
noticeable among French in this un-
occupied zone capital as the result |
of the raid. and some observers
to the United Nations ex-
pressed fear that 1t would result |
mainly in driving the French deeper
into collaboration with Germany.
Other sources contended that the |
factories in the Paris suburbs had
been turning out little for the Ger
mans because of shortages of raw
and that 600 men were
laid of at one plant this week for
that reason.
The number killed in the one
night raid indicates a fire power
even greater than that the Ger
mans directed at Coventry the night |
Of October IA, 1910, when more than
400 died. The intensity of the Gov
entry raid caused the coinage of a
new word for destruction-"Coven-
tryize."
Day after day the Germans swept
over London in continuous waves
during September. 1910. but even in
daylight inflicted only about 5000
deaths during this most sustained
civilian bombardment Of all times.
About 500 were killed in two raids
on Liverpool March IL and 13, 1e41.
and 100 died along the Clydebank
on March 13 and IA, 1941.