Evening star., 1943-04-17
500 BOMBERS HAMMER GERMAN FACTORIES
Greatest Raid
Continues for
Many Hours
British Resume Air
Attack After LOSING
otoI of IS Planes
BULLETINS.

IOtui OF - TIQneS
BULLETINS.
AT A U. S. BOMBER BASE
IN ENGLAND tP1.-In the sec
end American raid in two days ,
a very large force of United
States bombers today at
racked the Focke- -Wulf air
craft factory at Bremen, more
than 400 miles from their
English bases. 1t was the
sixth American raid on
Bremen.
LONDON 1Pl.-Soon after '
hundreds of night bombers
had set their wheels down on ,
British airdromes, high flying
Allied aircraft roared across
the Channel in summer like
weather to continue the blaz-
ing offensive by day.
BY the Assoc lated Press.
LONDON, April 17.-More than
500 bombers roared out in moon
light last night to strike heavily =
at Mannhe m, LudWigshaven and
Plsen-tte latter in German
occupied CzechSlovakia, the home
IT the Skoda munitions works
IN what the Air Ministry today =
called the biggest night opera
ton this year" Fifty-five planes
are missing in the raids, it was
announced.
The air ministry's description OF
the raid indicated it surpassed the
l00O-ton bomb assaults on Lor-
lent, St. Nazaire and Essen in Feb
ruary and March.
Although the loss of 55 bombers
approached 10 per cent of the raid
ing force, the authoritative view
was that the losses were not out of
| proportion to the damage done to
important targets. A 10 per cent
loss has been commonly regarded
as too eXtravagant. if sustained over
a long period, for the continuation
/ of an offensive.
| Attacks Called Successful.
Thirty-seven of the planes we're
missing from the Pilsen mission,
which the Air Ministry said was ac-
complished by Lancasters and Hall
faxes in great force"
Pilsen also is the home of the
World-famed Pilsen brewery.
Mannheim and Ludwigshaven are
on the Rhine, in Southwestern Ger
many, connected by a bridge across
| the river.
| Another force of Wellingtons,
Strings and Halifaxes attacked tire
armament works centered in that
area and 18 bombers were missing
from that raid, it was announced.
Preliminary reports indicate that
both attacks were concentrated and
successful the communique said.
the bomber losses in last nights
! operation were the greatest suffered
by the British in this war.
The previous high mark was 50,
in the Bremen 1,OOO-bomber raid
June 25, 1912.
Reds Raid Northeast Germany.
In other raids in force, ~ bombers
were lost over Cologne May 30, 1912,
and 35 over Essen June |, 1912.
The German radio early todav
broadcast the assertion that 81
bombers were shot down, but said
that this figure represented only
incomplete returns. The broadcast
was recorded by the Associated
Press.
The Berlin radio indicated also,
that the Russians had made the
nights operations three-wav
bomb-soWing with another raid on
Northeast Germany. Russian planes
ralded koenigsberg and Danzig
Wednesday night.
The British attack was the 56th
raid of the war on Mannheim.
home of great war industries in
cludlng the l. G. Farben Industrie
chemical manufacturers in suburban
LudWigshaven.
The raid on Pilsen was the fifth.
by the RAF. The last was in Mev.
1912, when force of Strings mace
l,4OO-mlle roundtrip to the
Czechoslovakian munitions center.
The Skoda works, which cover 400
acres. were ranked with the Krupp
and the Schneider -Kreusot works in
/ tSee RAIDS, Page 2-X)