Description

1,200 Heavies Hit Reich After 1-Day Nazi Air Bid 

The flaming air war which the Luftwaffe rekindled Saturday appeared yesterday to have been extinguished once more by the U.S. fighters and bomber gunners as over 1,200 Fortresses and Liberators, protected by approximately 750 fighters, bombed rail yards, airfields and oil targets in central Germany without opposition from enemy planes. 

The only air activity along the route of the bombers came in the form of three training planes, which were promptly shot down by the fighters. On Saturday, when the Luftwaffe daringly attacked a force of 1,300 heavies in strong groups, fighters of the 8th downed 64 planes while bomber gunners accounted for 40, making a grand total of 104. 

It was the strongest opposition thrown at the bombers since Mar. 2, when fighters and gunners knocked down 73 planes. The renewal of opposition Saturday cost the 8th 22 bombers and three fighters. Ten bombers and one fighter are missing from yesterday's missions. 

Visual Bombing Over Targets 

The bombers had ideal weather yesterday, with visual bombing prevailing over all targets except a rail yard at Plauen, 40 miles southwest of Chemnitz. The targets area stretched from west of Berlin to 15 miles south of Nuremberg. 

Three airfields were hit, one southwest of Dessau and the other southwest and south of Nuremburg. Rail yards beside those of Plauen were at Stendal, 70 miles west of Berlin; at Hof, 15 miles southwest of Plauen; and the Eger, 30 miles southwest of Plauen. 

Ordinance depot in the Bayreuth area, 40 miles northeast of Nuremberg, were pounded and another objective in the Nuremberg area was a jet-propelled repair planet at Furth, north of the city. Fifty-five miles west if Berlin, the bombers hit an oil depot at Derben. 

Flak, described as meager by airmen, represented the only opposition for the day. One fighter pilot called it a quiet day everywhere in enemy territory, with 'not a thing moving.' 

Heavy bombers of the 15th Air Force made their third consecutive raid on the Brenner Pass Route yesterday, besides plastering railroad bridges along the northern Italy front.