Evening star., 1944-05-04
France,Ronnania
Raided by Allies
|n2-WdyAttack
Reims Among Targets;
4o Raj Planes Lost:
Bucharest Hit Again
BY the Associated Press.

tSsSSN s'sA N9Nitt
Ey the Associated Press.
LONDON, May 4.-Great AL
lied air fleets turned their at
tention to Germany's anti-inva-
sion supply system last night
as possibly 750 Raj bombers
hammered the big military depot
OF Mailly, southeast of Reims,
and medium and heavy bombers
from italian bases attacked tar
gets in Bucharest.
Sending the shattering prein-
vaSion aerial offensive into it's Goth
Gay, Marauder medium bombers and
Havoc light bomberS of the United
States 9th Air Force attacked tar
gets in Northern France this morn
ing. Ninth Air Force Thunderbolts
and Spitfires of the RAF I'd Tacti-
cal Air Force gave them escort.
Later in the day American Flying
Fortresses bombed German airfield
In Holland. A preliminary announce
ment indicated this force numbered
less than $50 planes.
The FortreSses returned without
loss, but three accompanying fighters
were missing.
Not single Marauder or Havoc
was lost in the earlier raids.
5000 Tons of Bombs Dropped.
Nevertheless, the combined assault
by this streamlined force and the
lighter bombers brought to around
5000 tons the weight of bombs loosed
on the continent by about 1,750
bombers last night and today.
The blows last night came after a
concentrated Allied drubbing of
Germany's rail network along the
Atlantic coast.
The Raj heavy bombers which
flew from British bases in bright
moonlight met fierce opposition, the
Air Ministry announced, and 49
planes failed to return from the op-
erations, which included an attack
on the often-battered Western Ger
man chemical center of Ludwig
shafen.
In addition to Mailly, other French
targets hit by the British bombers
were aircraft stores and equipment
at Montdidier, % miles southeast
of Aniens, and an ammunition
dump at Chateaudun, about 80 miles
northwest of Orleans. The Air
Ministry said several enemy air.
craft" were destroyed by gunners
on the bombers.
The 40 bombers lost last night
constituted the largest RAF loss
since the record of Sc on the March
80 raid on Nurnberg.
In hitting targets in the Ro-
marian capital of Buchrest last
night the Allied heavy and medium
bombers made a shift from a series
of repeated hammerings during the
last week against German COM
munications in Northern Italy.
Bridges in Italy Hit.
The air offensive in Italy was
kept going yesterday, however, by
medium bombers which hit bridges
at number of points beyond Rome
and a rail yard at Ventiniglia on
the northwestern coast near the
French border.
Light bombers blasted supply
dumps north of the Italian battle
area and fighter -bombers hit rail
and supply installations in Central
Italy and shipping near the Dal-
matian coast. Operations from Ital-
ian bases cost the Allies three
planes, communique said, while
two enemy aircraft were destroyed.
A total of 1850 sorties were fiowen.
Liberators, Wellingtons and Hall
faxes of the Mediterranean Allied
Air Force smashed at Bucharest
targets. The city was hit for the
first time on April 4 and several
times since, but never before at
night. The Romanian capital was
one Of the targets on April Is when
the Mediterranean Allied Air Force
launched the mighty offensive
which since has continued unabated,
either from Britain or Italy or both.
$50 Planes in Raid.
While there were no official
figures on the number of British
based Raj planes involved in last
nights attacks or the bomb tonnage
dropped, the communicates an
nouncement that the operations
were conducted "in great strength"
usually means that total of about
$50 planes took part.
Since the targets were a COM
paratively short distance from the
bombers' home fields, it is possible
that the British planes dropped
loads totaling something in the
neighborhood of 5000 tons.
The main body of the Raj attack
fleet was concentrated on the
Mailly depot, where the Nazis
obviously are piling up stores for
use in combating the coming Allied
invasion from the west