The Archive · 1940

Details of Hamburg Raid

Further particulars of operations carried out by the Royal Air Force on Friday night, when oil storage tanks in Bremen and Hamburg were among targets attacked, show that the area of the raids extended from Hamburg in the north to Sedan in the south.

In addition to extensive damage inflicted on German oil depots and enemy aerodromes, troop columns and road and rail junctions in many parts of Germany and enemy occupied territory are claimed to have been effectively bombed. Powerful forces of Whitley, Wellington and Hampden heavy bombers took part.

German officers accompanying us said that the British bombers last night apparently flew low and aimlessly dropped bombs on the town because there were no military objectives. The United Press Corresponent saw, however, that several industrial plants were struck and that houses near the factories were aged. Workmen were still repairing power lines when the party passed.

Despite the fact that it was Sunday when we passed the area, smoke was pouring out of countless stacks which indicated that the vital Ruhr industrial region was operating at full blast.

The party of foreign journalists will visit Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht.—United Throughout Friday night and the early hours of Saturday morning relays of these aircraft kept up continuous bombardments of enemy objectives of vital importance.

Opposition came from massed searchlights, highly organized antiaircraft batteries, balloon barrages and at times from enemy fighters, but nevertheless the majority of the R.A.F. aircraft succeeded in locating given objectives and causing heavy damage. The few that failed to find their targets, owing to weather conditions or because of drifting smoke have ever the areas subjected to earlier bombing attacks, returned home with bomb loads intact.

Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.

Your account