The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-16
Other Bombers Blast
 Frankfurt -on-Oder
Continued from Page D

remainder of the capital was bel1ev- ed at least temporarily paralyzed.
 Returning crews, including 8 large number of Canadians and Austral- ians, said huge conflagrations bath ed the whole sky over Berlin in a red glow. They reported the raid not only was the heaviest but probably also the most concentrated and sue cessful ever undertaken against the city.
 Stunning
 The stunning intensity of the raid avs borne out by the fact that Ger man censorship had prevented all word of the attack from Nazi sources from reaching the outside world up to 12:3O D. m. (7:30 a. m. EWT) to- day. Radio Berlin had not even trumpted its usual claim of a terror attack" on civilian districts.
 Frankfurt-on- Oder, the nights secondary target, had not been raid- ed since October, 1940. It had a peace time population of 10000 and its main industries included ma chinery, chemicals and, coal mining giant 30O-yard- long bridge span- ming the Oder at Frankfurt made the city key communications cent CT.
 In the Berlin raid, bombers flew over the city in such tight forma- ton that one Lancaster almost drop ped its bombs on another plane and had to make a second target run Altogether, tens of thousands ol bombs ranging up to two-ton block busters were dropped.
 Only once before has the RAF unloaded 2,80O or more tons on Ger many on a single night, and on that occasion-the night of Nov. 18-the total was split between Berlin ano Ludwigshafen.
 Only few night fighters pene- trated the thick cloud cover to 1n- tercept the raiders. Anti-aircrat' fire was described as moderate.
 Sgt. c. K. Fudge, 8 rear gunner celebrating his Fist birthday, said the flax over the target area itself was "a bit sticky, though none came anywhere near his plane.
 Bags of Lancasters were all over the target and we could see them all a-ound us," Fudge said.
 Pathfinder planes were the first over the target area, marking it off with flares for the big bombers that followed. Some attacked from 20,- 900 feet.
 18th Raid
 The raid was the 1th since the RAF began its methodical destruc- tion of Berlin and brought the ton- mage dropped on the city in the past three months to q 300, nearly half of 1t in January alone.
 Though Berlin was beneved reel ing under the weight of the all-out offensive, air authorities warned that much remained to be done be- fore the city has been knocked out completely as the nerve center of the Axis war effort.
 Bad weather interrupted the of- fensive after a 1,500-ton raid Jan. 30, but twin-engined mosquitoes kept the capitals defenses on edge with three nuisance attacks in the interim.
 American four -engined LberatorS joined with medium, light and fighter -bombers yesterday in one O. the heaviest daylight assaults yet on invasion targets in Northern France.
 Returning pilots reported that huge columns of smoke, visible for miles, were left curling up from the target areas. Visibility was excel lent and, while the Germans put up heavy anti-aircraft fire, there was no fighter opposition.
 American MarauderS alone made $50 sorties, bringing their score for 12 days of this month to more than 1000 SortieS and 2,200 tons of bombs dropped on Northern France.
 One Marauder, . Boston and four fighters were lost in yesterdays raids.