BOMBS ON KIEL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 256, 10 January 1941, Page 6

BOMBS ON KIEL

A PLANE S LOW DIVE PILOT'S DRAMATIC STOIIY Bombs were dropped on the naval dockyard at Kiel from a height of only 800 feet when heavy bomber;-: of the R.A.F. carried out a swift attack recently, says the London Daily Telegraph. Pilots and crews described, on their return, how bombs straddled tlie mole and were seen, to burst in oilier parts of Iho dock area. Heavy explosions following one *itlaek eulimnated in rt. huge lire wi!.h a mass of black smoke, rising from it, suggesting that an oil store had been set on fire. One raider reported "five large fires started." The pilot, who came down to 800 feet to drop his bombs, told the dramatic story of the raid: "We flew along at about 13,000 ft, and then came roun'rl. slightly east of the trtrget. One searchlight picked us ii]) and then suddenly Ave seemed to he in the centre of the biggest collection of anti-aircraft bursts and searchlights I have ever seen. They all came on at once, just as though somebody had pushed over a switch. "We tlew on, taking ordinary evasive action. From inyi height I could definitely make out the shape of the mole. I decided to take tlie odd. chance, and down he went in a dive to 800 ft. A 350 m.p.li. Dive ■>"1 was trying to keep the target just underneath the nose of the aircraft all the time. We got up a dickens of a speed. I estimate we were doing about 350 m.p.h. on the clock. When we got down to about 8000 they had about 1.1 searchlights on us. The heavy Halt (anti-aircraft fire) had been coming up all the time and now the light flak started. It just came straight up at us. I have never seen so much before"l thought we couldn't go back having got so far, so we just carried on. The lower we went the more intense the flak became. I saw i a long dark shape to the west of the mole which looked like a ship, j "We just carried on diving. I gave , the order to release the bombs at 800 ft. Then straightaway we shot clown to 100 feet over the mole and just above the water. There seemed J to be more searchlights than eve<r. At times I Avas blinded. "Suddenly in front of me I saw a lot of trees coming up straight ahead. One of the searchlights, flattening out to try to catch us, had illuminated them just in time for me to see them. I pulled the aircraft up, and Ave Avent over the top. "I tried going up to 300 feet, but all the guns in the area seemed to be banging away at us. Ii Avas incredible. We Avent down low again and flew over the town at about 100 feet. "The front and rear gunners were blazing awaj r at the points of fire on the ground. They used tip about 3000 rounds between them. We must have stayed over the tOAvn for about ten minutes, just charging backwards and forwards trying to gel away. Practically all the time we were about 100 ft, The Final Escape. "We Avent south, zig-zagging all the time. We got about 15 f fniL-s away and then, although we were being shot at, Ave Avere able to gain height. As ve went up we had to take violent evasive action all the time. Finallx' avc got away. Another bomber,, which started five large (ires in the area, had by contrast carried out a high-level attack and met with little fire over Kiel. "We ran into it on the way back" the pilot said. "They-.opened up nil the way down. Eventually we got to what avc thought Avas a safe point. We bad just skirled to open up Vie colfee and sandwiches when everything began again. AVe bad made a slight miscalculation and were slap bang over Heligoland. Sl-iil. we go! away with it all right." One bomber off the coast soulh ol Brest enoount-'red a Hornier ft } •i;g wjl i s navsgaSion j cockpit lights on. The bomber took j ii]) a parallel course anil attacked the enemy. Soon a Tier Hie bursi. flame - were seen coming from his starboard engine <1 the 'Dornie • a" ! *1 began rapidly to lose height, r l !)■" bomber continued the pursuit but broke oil' after the Dornior entered tbo <Vfe<vlp<ll area at.l,orient. When