Evening star., 1943-10-09
Raids
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I\NlA
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and preliminary reports showed the
assault was concentrated. The
British lost 81 bombers.
Today's flight all the way across
Germany to East Prussia and Poland
at least 800 miles from the British
bases-may have carried the big
American bombers to within 300
miles Of the Russian front line.
1t foreshadowed the day when
Allied blows from Britain may be
linked up with the vast ground
front in Russia and provided elo-
quent testimony to the feebleness of
the German effort to forestall what
Berlin calls the "air terror" that is
striking down German cities one by
one.
The extreme eastern part of East
Prussia is only 300 miles from Newell,
the most westerly point Of the Rus
sian offensive.
BY this spectacular raid the Amer
leans gave proof that the German
interior no longer Is safe for pro-
ducing the much-needed tools of
war.
Last nights RAF raid on Bremen
was the second time in four days
that British and American heavy
armadas had thrown a doubleday
night punch at German industrial
centers nearer their British bases.
The British force attacking the
north German port of Bremen was
guided to its target by fires set from
heavy explosives dumped during
daylight yesterday by American
Liberators and Flying Fortresses
which, with Thunderbolt escort, shot
down 142 enemy fighters in a great
battle in which 80 heavy bombers
were lost. Their targets were Bre-
men and Vegesack.
Was 106th Attack.
Last nights attack on Bremen was
the 106th of the war on that subma-
rine and aircraft center, and the
twin assault boosted major Raj
aerial attacks on Germany to SIX
since the first of the month-a pace
considerably ahead of that for the
same period during September.
Hanover. 100 miles due west of
Berlin, is Germanys 10th largest
city, with population of half a
million. 1t was the 5lst raid of the
war on the big armament and rail-
way center, and the consistency OF
the heavy night blasts seemed de-
signed to erase that city from the
map in much the same way that
Hamburg was knocked from the war.
Other RAF planes rounded out
the nights scattered assaults by
laying mines in Nazi shipping lanes.
Meanwhile, reports to the Stock
holm newspaper Social Demokraten
on the RATS October 7 raid on
Stuttgart said that 1,7oO persons
were killed and thousands injured.
Nazis Retaliate.
German planes retaliated feebly
over England during the night,
dropping a few bombs which the
Air and Home Security Ministries
said caused only negligible damage.
Two of the raiders were shot down.
Neither London nor Berlin gave
details of the raid on the German
capital, which was the ninth since
the middle of August, but it evil
IDENTIFY followed the line of other
raids on that city by the light Mos
quitos designed chiefly to slow war
production and lower morale by
forcing the residents to spend sleep
less nights in air raid shelters.
Thirty bombers were lost from the
force of Flying Fortresses and Lib
orators which blasted the Stuka
dive-bomber plant at Bremen and
submarine installations at nearby
Vegesack yesterday. Three of the
Thunderbolts, which provided cover
half way to the targets, also failed
to return.
Rocket planes which earlier
were reported used by the Germans,
later were described as German
fighters equipped with rocket guns
under each wing.
Germans Admit Damage.
The German radio admitted that
particularly heavy destruction re-
suited from the raids yesterday.
Keeping the Allied air offensive
going at its rapid pace, RAF heavy
bomberS again were over Germany
last night, the British announced to-
day, but targets were not disclosed
The toll of 142 German planes
was the second heaviest of the war
and was exceeded only in the twin
raid on Regensburg and Schweinfurt
August II when BOT were shot down.
Of yesterdays bag the heavy bomb
ers accounted for 100 and the
Thunderbolts shot down the remain
ing IL.
There was no indication in the
preliminary reports of the raid as
to what portion of the heavy Amer
lean losses were the result of the
new German techniques or how
many were the victims of flax from
ground batteries or fighter fire. The
loss was more than half that
sustained by the British in eight
days of, intensive activity over
Hagen, Munich, Kassel, Frankfurt,
Ludwigshafen and Stuttgart in
which the Raj toll was 81.
Flax Was Intense.
The American pilots said that fax
over the target was particularly in
tense. 1t. John Harris of Buffalo.