Smashing aerial raids on France
Troop concentrations and railroads are hit by British
Bulletin
London, England (AP) –
U.S. Fortresses and Liberators bombed airfields in Holland and Belgium, rocket bomb nests and other targets in the Pas-de-Calais Department of France today in swift continuance of devastating attacks by the RAF from the Channel coast to the German Ruhr.Up to 500 U.S. planes, half heavy bombers and half convoying fighters, carried out the forenoon assault in cloudy weather with opposition as scant that all returned.
London, England (AP) –
In one of the most devastating series of night assaults since the Normandy invasion began, British heavy and light bombers smashed as railroads, troop concentrations and flying bomb nests in France last night, while Mosquitos struck anew at the enemy’s fuel supply by blasting a synthetic oil plant in the Ruhr.
Indications that Germany was getting another pounding today came from the German radio which said that bomber formations were approaching the northwestern part of the Reich.
During the sweeping overnight operations, which climaxed a July 4 display of aerial might in which nearly 5,000 planes ranged over the continent yesterday, RAF Lancasters and Halifaxes pounded railway yards at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges on the southeastern outskirts of Paris and at Orléans, 75 miles to the south.
The blows renewed a campaign – recently interrupted by bad weather – to disrupt the movement of enemy supplies and reinforcements to the Normandy battlefront.
Another formation of British heavies plastered launching ramps for flying bombs in northern France – the second heavy attack in less than 24 hours on the lair of the robot raiders which continued to drone across the Channel during the night.
Fourteen heavy bombers were reported lost in the attack on railyards below Paris while 13 planes were lost in raids on the Ruhr and the rocket bomb nests and in minelaying operations. The Germans asserted 40 four-engined bombers were downed during the night.
Mosquitos and Bostons of the 2nd Tactical Air Force also ranged over France during the night, making what Allied air headquarters described as a record number of attacks on German communications.