Evening star., 1944-05-02
500 W. S. Planes Hit
Nuzi installations:
No Aircraft Lost
By the Associated Press.


Liberators bombed German in
stallations in the ASIDE Calais
area of Northern France at mid
day today, carrying the great
preinvaSion air offensive into its
18th consecutive day after 1000
or more heavy bombers assaulted
enemy targets by night in
France, Belgium, Italy and
Germany.
The Liberators encountered no
German fighters and an unusually
small amount of flax, A communi-
que said all planes returned.
Up to $50 heavy British and
Canadian bombers flew from Eng
land through a cloudless night
against German aircraft, chemical,
auto and explosive factories and
against the rail targets on which
the enemy must depend to meet
invasion, the British Air Ministry
announced. The others rose from
italian bases.
British night bombers flying from
bases on this island dropped we'll
over $500 tons of bombs, it was an
nounced officially.
About 500 American planes were
estimated authoritatively to have
made today's attack, half of them
Liberators and half Thunderbolt and
Mustang fighters.
Formations of Allied medium
bombers and fighters crossed and
recrossed the channel skies in the
early afternoon, after the Liberia
tors had returned from their mis-
sion.
Rail Yards Assaulted.
Thunderbolt fighter -bombers, es-
corted by Thunderbolt fighters, at
tackled rail yards at Tergnier and
Lemans deep in France, while the
Liberators were striking French soil
closest to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
invasion masses.
Lemans is one of the most i'm
portant functions in Western France,
a funnel for traffic between Paris and
big western ports such as ST. Ma
zaire and Brest.
The fighter-bombers' sweep raised
to 21 the number of railroad objec-
tives attacked in the last "A hours,
nearly as many as were hit all last
week.
At 4 pm, the German radio as
serted that enemy fighter forma-
tions are over western Germany"
indicating that one of the Allied
fighter strafing expeditions was
against Nazi airfields.
Italian Cities Attacked.
Last nights operations, probably
the most far-flung although not
the heaviest conducted by the Raj,
came while Allied heavy and me-
dium bombers in the Mediterranean
theater shot four ply blow at key
German-held cities in Italy. They
also followed attacks by Britain
based daylight raiders. of which
1000 were American, which blasted
II rail functions through which sup
plies and men move to Hitler's At
lantic wall.
The operational record from
Britain yesterday was around 1000
sortes individual plane fights
while Allied planes based in Italy
added 1900 more sorties TO the pre-
invasion aerial crescendo. Ten planes
from the Raj British-baSed sky
feet failed to return, while two
Allied aircraft were reported missing
from all daylight and night opera
tions yesterday in the Italian the
ater. Two enemy planes were
destroyed in the Italian theater.
The Raj planes from Britain
which also were joined by RCAF
bombers, hit an auto works at Lyon,
an airplane repair plant at Tours,
an airplane factory and explosive
works at Tolouse and rail installa-
tions in Chambly near Paris.
In addition to these French tar
gets, the night raiders hit two Bel
gian rail targets-at Mechelin.
northeast of Brussels, and at st.
Ghlslain, near Mons. They also
struck the German chemical center
"a A-No al Vic OppSI
Rhineland in what evidently was a
olVersionary operation.
Genoa Blasted Again.
In the Mediterranean theater,
Wellingtons last night hit the har-
bors of La Spezia and Livorno Geg-
horn, while German installations at
Genoa were given their fourth con-
secutive pounding by Liberators.
Wellingtons and Halifaxes ham
mered at targets in Alessandria, so
miles southwest of Milan. A factory
and a dump near Popoli and a
dump near Moricone also were
bombed.
During daylight yesterday Allied
medium bombers blasted rail tar
gets in the Florence and Rome
areas and fighter bomberS ranged
over rail communications along both
the Italian east and west coasts and
hit motor transport northwest OF
Metkovic in Yugoslavia.
The 1000 American planes in the
tSee RAIDS, Page A-9.)