Evening star., 1944-07-13
1000 Heavy Bombers
Hit Munich for Third
Successive Day
By the Associated Press.

LONDON, July Is. - Munich
was hit a hard blow for the third
successive day by 1000 Flying
Fortresses and Liberators today
while the 18th Air Force in Italy
again stabbed at Nazi oil and
rail facilities in Northern Italy
Saarbrucken in Western Germany
also was hit by the heavies from
England.
Up to 500 Fortresses and Liber-
ators smashed at Porto Marghera
and Trieste oil storage tanks. four
railyards on the Milan-Venice line
and the Pinzano rail bridge over the
Tagliamento River, 80 miles north
west of Trieste, Rome dispatches
announced.
The railyards hit were at Brescia.
Verona, Mestre and Mantua.
Munich is transportation center
for railways and roads between Ger
many, Italy and France and the at
tack fitted into the rapidly snow
balling campaign threatening to
cripple German transport over all
Western Europe, the same as it now
Is disrupted in the northwest cor
ner.
The Munich area now has received
about 1000 tons of American bombs
in three days.
A large fleet OF 1900 RAF heavy
bombers struck two Of the most i'm
portant rail centers in Central
France before dawn without loss.
Other British bombers from Italy
battered the Brescia railyards in
Northern Italy by night.
Saarbrucken is a major steel and
coal center nearly athwart the
Western German border on a main
trunk line to Paris, 200 miles due
west. Mosquitoes during the night
had stung targets in the nearby
Ruhr.
Up to 500 fighters conveyed the
thousand American bombers to
Munich and Saarbrucken, making
the total forces slightly less than
the 1000 or so planes which struck
Tuesday and yesterday. AS on the
last two trips, the planes few
through murky weather and bombed
through clouds.
Air force officers said German
communicate tions in Northwest Eu-
rope are so snarled that traffic to
the Normandy front must be
wormed laboriously by routes south
of Paris.
The Allied cavalry of the sky"
has been Systematically wrecking
traffic lines in Southern Europe,
from the Balkans to the Atlantic.
The bombardment of Munich is a
logical part of this campaign which
has struck heavily and repeatedly
at rail yards in Budapest, Vienna,
Bucharest, Sofia and in Yugoslavia.
Raj LancaSters and HalifaXes
participated in the overnight opera
tions, during which railway yards
at Tours and Coulmont- -Chaldney
were the main targets.
Tours is a vital bottleneck in the
German transportation network
some 100 miles behind the Nor
mandy battle front, while Culmont-
Chaldney-l50 miles southeast of
Paris and halfway to the German
frontier-is key point through
which the Germans have been fun
neling supplies and reinforcements
into France.
While the British night raiders
were battering these targets, other
formations of Raj heavy bombers
made a series OF violent assaults on
German flying bomb installations
In Northern France.
Mosquitoes struck simultaneously
at industrial objectives in the Ruhr
Valley and other British aircraft
laid mines In enemy waters
The repeated blows against the
Munich area -. more than 1900
American heavy bombers attacking
there yesterday and an equal num-
ber the day before-coupled with
raids yesterday on railroad centers
In Southern France by Italy-based
planes, shaped up as an Allied at
tempt to cripple German transport
throughout all Western Europe as
severely as 1T is now in the north
west section.
Despite bad weather at least nine
bridges in the northwest corner of
France bounded by the Seine and
Loire we're bombed by mediums and
fghter-bombers late yesterday as
part Of battlefront support actions
which also included jabs at German
gun positions, conveys and tank
repair depots.
Nine German planes were shot
down-five in 5-minute battle over
Lemans involving IL Thunderbolts
and 10 Focke-Wulfs. Only one Allied
plane was reported missing.
In the blows yesterday against
Southern France from Italian bases,
American Liberators bombed rail-
road targets in the Rhone Valley
and on the Riviera.
Escorting Mustangs shot down IA
enemy fighters. Mediterranean Air
Force losses totaled 20 planes.
During the night RAF bombers
blasted the rail yard at Brescia in
Northern Italy, today's Rome COM
munique announced.
German aircraft stabbed yester-
day at an Allied convoy off the
North African coast, but Allied
fighters drove them off and the
ships escaped damage.
The Swiss radio said early today
that Toulon on the French Medi-
terranean coast, hard hit by Amer
lean heavy bombers, had been COM
pletely evacuated.