Evening star., 1943-06-27

manufacturing center between Duisburg
and Dusseldorf and lying near the
Dutch border. The attack on the city.
noted for its textiles, special steels for
airplane armor and its sulphuric acid
vital IN the production of explosives, was
said to have been unusually concentrated
and effective.
The price of this raid was A bombers.
Flying Fortresses followed a few hours
later in heavy force at the Huls synthetic
rubber plant at Recklinghausen and
at the former General Motors plant
at Antwerp. The attacks were successful
but 20 bombers were lost although in the
combat with German fighters 1t was said
that considerable number of Nazis had
been shot down.
Tuesday night the German communi-
cations and steel centers of Muelheim,
seven miles west of Essen, and its great
krupp works received a satisfactory
taste of block-buSters from hundreds
of RAF bombers of which IS and
fighter failed to return. The crews of
the planes which did return safely de-
clared that raging fires were still OBJ
scuring Krefeld and Huls.
Muelheim, which has a normal popula-
ton Of 10000, was especially important
as a center of repair for locomotives,
hundreds of which need overhaul due to
the hedge-hopping Typhoons and Mos
quitoes whose special task is to disrupt
rail transportation on the continent.
Wednesday large formations of Flying
Fortresses roared out of England across
the Channel, returning some time later,
but SO far there had been no announce
ment of the objective and the results.
The strange silence concerning this
foray is causing considerable speculation.
Wednesday night something new was
added when RAF Lancaster bombers
completed shuttle trip which started
with the Sunday raid on Friedrichs-
hafen after which the bombers con-
/. tinued on to an African base from which
they returned, pausing en- route to blast
LIE Spezia, the important Italian naval
base where the greater part of the Ital-
ian fleet is believed concentrated.
Whether the raid is the forerunner of
similar raids cannot be stated. However.
successful flight over so much territory
from which land-based interceptors
could rise to intervene, might serve as
guide for future raids on other, Axis
lands where much Of the flying would
be over water, limiting, of course, the
extent of 7land-based interception. asa.n
Thursday perhaps the largest total
of bombers ever to leave England roared
across the Channel toward Germany
and occupied Europe. However. they
were light bombers engaged in nuisance
raids, largely. but in the evening the
Raj struck devastatingly at Wuppertal
where the attack was concentrated on
textile and chemical factories. Five
planes failed to return from the after
noon raids and 80 bombers were lost in
the Wuppertal attack. The damage to
Wuppertal was extensive and, adding to
the effectiveness of the raid. was the
bombing of various installations along
the Atlantic Wall, including fuel con-
Schei atioHo dt riuSillIS.
Friday and Friday night Allied planes
hit heavily at the synthetic gasoline
works at Gelsenkirchen and the coal
mining and steel facilities of Bochum
nearby. In the afternoon Flying Fort
resses, unescorted by fighters, staged the
second raid in week on the Huls syn
thetic rubber plant, but 81 bombers were
lost on the raid. The Nazis paid with at
least 100 fighters and perhaps more.
The Raj raid cost 80 bombers.
Accurate figures have not been COM
piled but it is evident that the American
and British air forces, between them, lost
more than 200 bombers for the week but
in the cold figuring of war, the cost was
light in view of the crippling of German
war industries and the creation of panic
and despair throughout the Ruhr Valley.