Evening star., 1943-05-15
5000 Tons of
Bombs Dropped
In 48 Hours
By the Associated Press.

LONDON, May 15.-A four-ply
sweep by American bombers yes
terday in the greatest force
they have mustered in the war
topped off two days of paralyz-
ing, record -shattering aerial
blows at German occupied Eu-
rope from the east, south and
west. and some observers here
regarded the aerial offensive to-
day as the curtain raiser for the
battle for Europe.
British patrols kept the air offensive
going last night with intruder flights
over Northern France. The Air
Ministry said two enemy planes were
destroyed and that railway targets
and a supply ship were attacked.
In addition to sending out the
greatest number of planes in a single
day. the American Air Forces en-
gagged in a round-trip flight of more
than 1000 miles to blast the Ger
man naval and submarine base at
Kiel. 1t marked their deepest pene-
tration of Europe.
In closely co-ordinated supporting
attacks, American heavy units
bombed the former General Motors
plant in Antwerp and large Ger
man airfield and repair station at
Courtrai. in Belgium Medium
bombers made successful low level
attacks on Industrial targets at Vel
zen. near Harlem, in the Neither
lands.
Power Emphasized.
The tremendous explosive power
dumped from coastal France through
Germany to German-occupied West
ern Russia and on Mediterranean
bases since Wednesday night can
best be pictured by these figures:
When Hitler threw his aerial
might at London in an effort to
knock out Britain from the war
1900 IONS of bombs were dropped
during ga raids.
In 48 hours. beginning Wednesday
night. the Raj alone dumped al
most 5000 tons of explosives on Ger
man communication lines, factories
and naval bases.
The weight of explosives dropped
by American bombers in their un-
precedented raids yesterday, and of
the Russian attacks Wednesday and
Thursday on German rail and con-
centration centerS in Western Rus
Sia and Warsaw, have not been re-
vealed. Neither have figures been
made public on the heavy Thursday
raids on Axis Mediterranean bases
in Sardinia and Sicily and on Ma
pies. Italy.
The American mass and distance
records followed up an RAF record
for a single nights operations in
which 5000 tons of bombs were
showered Thursday night on Berlin.
the Ruhr Valley and on Czechoslo-
vakia. almost double the bomb load
the RAF had delivered on any prev
ious night The Raj dropped more
than 1900 tons of blockbusterS on
Duisburg in the industrial Ruhr
Wednesday night.
Mass of Flames and Smoke.
The flight to Kiel left targets
there a mass of flames and smoke
Returning American pilots said their
loads split the targets. 1t. H. Kind
ley of Catesville, Tex. bombardier
of one of the planes over Kiel, said
that all he could see was smoke, but
that he dropped his load right
through it.
we must have blown some of
Kiel off the map was the comment
of 1t. Frank D. Slough OF Cleve-
land
They laid their bombs right in
there said the commanding gen.
eral of the Veltzen raid His iden-
tity was not disclosed.
OF the Antwerp raid. the COM
manding general had this to say:
The entire performance was ex-
cellent However. these boys ran
into as hot a fight as l have seen
to date. Fighters attacked us heav-
lily, but we more than held our
own"
American losses in the days oper-
ations were announced as II bomb
ers and lighters.
The German radio, in broadcast
recorded by the Associated Press,
said 10 planes we're shot down dur
ing the attack on Kiel.
Enemy losses we're not announced,
but one report said a formation OF
United States bombers destroyed "a
considerable number of fighters.
80 Planes DOwned, Nazis Claim.
A DNB broadcast from Berlin
claimed that in all 80 Allied planes
we're shot down yesterday in raids
over occupied western territories
and the Northern German coast" "
Fourteen of the planes were Ameri-
can four-engined bombers. DNB
said.
The RAF fighter command S
night-riding bombers damaged a
200-ton ship near the French coast
and struck at communications and
airfields in sweeps into occupied
territory last night, the Air s1inis-
try announced today.
Two enemy planes were destroyed
during the night raids.
1.-THE owl credited to the
Swedish newspaper Arbetaren
today report which said Ger
man circles" admitted that DAM
age resulting from Allied April
raids was most severe" and re-
duced the capacity of many Ger
man war industries by more
than one-half."
.~ut cited the raid on the Skoda
armament works in CzechoSlo-
vakia and said the works were
'1n ruins"
("The Skoda raid" it said. lis
grim reminder of what may
happen any day to Germany's
other so-called secure war plants
IN Eastern Germany, Czecho-
slovakia. Austria or any other