Brooklyn Eagle (January 27, 1943)
1ST U.S. RAID ON REICH
Flying Fortresses launch bombing attack after Allies draw up master war plan
Report fliers batter ports in the north; naval installations blasted – our losses are believed small
Deadly Flying Fortresses, built by Americans, flown by Americans, made their first raid over Nazi Germany today, bombing objectives.
London, England (UP) –
American bombs from American planes crashed on German soil today for the first time in this war, carrying into action the promise of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to batter the Axis into unconditional surrender.
The raid was made against German naval installations and was presumably a continuation of the ‘round-the-clock assault of the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Force against German submarine bases and repair depots.
Flying Fortresses and Liberator bombers – big four-motored planes bristling with .50-callber machine guns – made the attack.
The target was still a secret, although most speculation here centered on one of Germany’s northwestern ports – Hamburg, Kiel, Bremen, Flensburg, Rostock and Lübeck.
Great day for fliers
It was a great day for U.S. bomber crews who have waited impatiently for weeks to drop bomb on German soil. Fortresses and Liberators have been over occupied France several times, but heretofore their deepest penetration into enemy territory was a raid on Dec. 20 against Romilly-sur-Seine, 70 miles east of Paris.
Details are lacking
The authoritative statement merely said:
U.S. Army Air Force Flying Fortresses and Liberators attacked naval installations in Germany today.
Today’s attack is apparently another step in the assault of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force on German submarine bases. There has been much emphasis on the anti-submarine bombing since the first of the year because of the growing Allied concern about the U-boat campaign against United Nations supply lines.
Losses believed light
If the attack was actually made on Baltic ports, the big bombers flew a roundtrip of close to 1,000 miles from their British bases.
No figures were available immediately on the losses, if any, suffered by the Americans, but it was believed to be low.
Earlier British heavy bombers and Coastal Command planes, extending the Allied aerial offensive to the southwest coast of France, bombed targets in the German-held port of Bordeaux.
Another force of Bomber Command planes attacked the battered German submarine base of Lorient on the French coast and left fires burning in the dock area. Two planes were missing.
Naples is bombed
Rome, Italy (UP) – (Italian broadcast recorded in New York)
A High Command communiqué said today that an Allied plane had bombed the outskirts of Naples, wounding two civilians, and that other planes “attempted” to bomb Messina, Sicily.
