The Wilmington morning star., 1943-10-11
1902 GERMAN FIGHTER
PLANES ARE DOWNED
Continued From Page One)

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railroad, and at Coesfjeld, about
20 miles west of Muenster. Muen-
ster, a city of about 100000 inhab.
itants, is an army garrison town
and light manu1a curing center.
Today's foray, reinforcing the
aerial iron ring about Hitler's For
tress which was forged yesterday
by Liberators and Flying Fortress
es in their epocna1 1,800-mile
round trip into the Russians raid
ing grounds, came as the U. S.
bomber command announced re-
markable successes in Saturdays
four-ply attack on Poland, East
Prussia and Pomerania.
at Coesfield, about 20 miles west
of Muenster. Muenster, a city of
about 100000 inhabitants, is an
army garrison town and light man.
ufacturing center.
Today's foray, reinforcing the
aerial iron ring about Hitler S
fortress which was forged yester-
day by Liberators and Flying
Fortresses in their epochal 1900
mile round trip into the Russians
raiding grounds, came as the U.
S. bomber command announced
remarkable successes in Saturdays
four-ply attack on Poland, East
Prussia and Pomerania.
The big Focke-Wulf assembly
plant at Marienburg, East Prus-
STA, where half of Gerlaany's
prime fighter planes are estimat-
ed to be assembled, was virtually
destroyed,
The airplane parts plant at Ank-
lam, Pomerania, was set afire
and continued to blaze furiously
several hours later.
At the Polish corridor port of
Gdynia, the 55O-foot, 13,387-ton
German liner Stuttgart and three
other ships were set afire.
Submarine and shipbuilding
yards, docks, workshops, oil stor-
age tanks and railroad yards both
at Gdynia and at the former free
city of Danzig across the bay
were damagec.
At least 81 of the 100 to 200 Ger
man fighters sent up in desperate
attempts to halt the American ar
mada's bold journey across all of
Germany were shot down, and Is
others probably were destroyed.
Twenty nine bombers tailed to
return, but the crews of three
were safe in Sweden.
Yesterdays heavy toll brought
the weeks score to at least 437
Nazi planes destroyed in the Eu-
ropean and Mediterranean thea
tiers, against an Allied loss of 2O9.
American bomber-gunners and
fighters shot down 308 enemy
fighters and lost "a bombers and
three fighters. The Raj shot
down 70 planes in North Africa, 40
over German-occupied Europe,
two in the Middle East and six
over Britain, and lost 1872 planes,
of which 107 went down over Eu-
rope.
Saturdays attack completely
COMPOUNDED Germany's defenses.
The first formations reaching Ma
rienburg fought off 100 to 200 Ger
man fighters armed with rocket
guns slung under their wings, but
other formations sweeping in later
on Danzig and Gdynia saw only a
half dozen fighters.
Berlin's version of the bitter
aerial combats, which it said
were waged for several hours, had
62 bombers shot down as against
II of their own planes.
Fresh Messerschmitt and
Focke-Wulf fighters were thrown
into the battle time and time
again" said the Berlin account.
''When the U. S. A. bombers ap-
preached the coastal area (of the
Baltic German flax divisions
joined the battle.
"a captured American gunner
spoke of the terrible and devas-
tating effect of German fighter
ammunition. One German Messer-
schmitt squadron within nine min
utes shot down one element con-
sisting of four enemy aircraft.
among the places attacked
were Anklam and Gotenhagen
formerly Gdynia) where build
ings were damaged and the civil
ian population suffered"
Large-scale day and night oper'
atoms against Germany since
Thursday now stand at four.
Thursday night, the southern
German industrial city of SUIT
CART was the target of a heavy
Raj raid.
Friday, one of the greatest
heavy bomber forces ever sent
out by the U. S. Air Force blasted
the North Sea ship and submarine
yards at Bremen and Vegesack.
The Raj returned to Bremen
for follow-up Friday night and
also hit the rubber and railroad
center of Hanover for the fourth
time in less than three weeks, and
Mosquitoes raided Berlin. The
Mosquito crewmen en- route back
to Berlin Ia st NIGHT said thew GNU