Evening star., 1944-05-06
Yonks Raid 5 Points in Romonio:
Waters ofWrecked Italian Dam
Flood Nozis' Adriotic Defenses
Daylight Blow Follows
British Night Attack
On PIoesti Sector
(Picture on Page A-3.)
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
Naples. May 6.-American bomb
ers today attacked five points in
Romania. Perhaps 500 to 750 of
the heavy aircraft took part in
the raids.
The targets were the railyards
and an aircraft plant at Brasov, rs
miles north of Bucharest; Pitesti,
60 miles northwest of the capital;
Cariova, 95 miles to the east, and
Campina and Turnu-Severin.
Fortresses and Liberators fought
through enemy fighters In bonn
harding the targets at Brasov.
The blows, coming in a steady
offensive against Balkan targets,
were the first delivered against
Pitesti and Cariova.
Pescara Dam Breached.
They followed an attack by AL
lied bombers last night on Roman
ian oil fields in the Ploesti area and
the preaching of the Pescara dam
in Italy yesterday.
American heavy bombers made
daylight attacks yesterday on two
Romanian rail centers.
In the overnight assault, British
Halifaxes and Wellingtons bombed
the railway yards and oil storage
tanks at Campina, in Romania, 10
miles northwest of Ploesti. 1t was
the first British raid on that Oil field.
Dive bombing Kittyhawks and
Mustangs, flown by British, Austral-
ian and South African pilots, ex-
ecuted the attack on the Pescara
Dam, spilling flood waters over Ger
man communications, and defenses
10 miles beyond the Adriatic end of
the long dormant British 9Th Army
front.
"a Allied Aircraft Lost.
In all operations in the Mediter-
ranean theater yesterday, embrac-
ing 1850 sorties, Is heavy bombers
and 8 other Allied planes were lost,
headquarters said. Eleven German
planes were destroyed.
The dam, 10 miles up the Pescara
River from the port of the same
name, had penned up a huge lake
At last reports great wall of flood
waters was moving downstream to-
ward Pescara The Germans had
depended on the. dam for electric
power.
The announcement was the first
disclosure here that the American
built Psi Mustangs now are being
used by Allied flyers.
Heavy forces of American four
engined bombers struck into Ro-
mania yesterday and hit the Oil and
rail center of Ploesti and the rail-
way city of Turnu-Severin.
30-Minute Running Battle.
Over Ploesti the bombers and
their escorting fighters engaged in
a Commute running battle with
about 100 German fighters.
Light bombers attacked an am
munition dump west of Albano, in
Italy, and other aircraft~hit roads
and railways both north and south
of Rome.
The stroke against the Pescara
Dam ranked with the RATS success
full attack last year on the Mohne
Dam in Germany, the iron sluice
gates were ripped apart by under
water explosions from bombs planted
on the upper side of the structure
Sergt. Alexander Duguid of Scot
land apparently dropped the first
bomb to breach the dam. Ken
Richards, an Australian pilot, saw
his explosives make another break
in the iron walls.
Begins Flooding Cities.
AS the last Allied flyer left the
scene a wall of water followed by
five even higher waves already was
a mile downstream. The water be-
gan flooding German-occupied Ital-
ian cities and the German defenses
erected opposite the 9Th Army lines
in the Ortona sector, 10 miles below
the port of Pescara.
In addition to engulfing German
positions near 4 the Adriatic, the
water was expected to sweep away
bridges vital to Axis military traffic
in that sector.
An indication of what could be
expected from the blasting of the
dam was seen in the disastrous ex-
perience of the Italians in 1884,
when they attempted to release
water through the sluices and in
undated the town of Pescara to an
avorona IaDfh 1f 4,