A RAID ON BERLIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 86, 8 October 1940, Page 8

A RAID ON BERLIN

PILOTS TELL STORY

NOTHING LEFT TO CHANCE

COOL BOMB AIMING

One night when intensive R.A.F. raids were carried into Germany, pilots competed for the honour of taking part in a heavy attack on targets in Berlin, states a report in the London Press. Aircraft drawn from two squadrons made a special attack on one objective only four miles from tile centre of the city. Every pilot in the two squadrons wanted to be in on the raid. "You could not have bought a seat in any of the aircraft for any amount of money." said a senior intelligence officer.

In one case, two pilots "tossed for it." They, were normally the first and second "pilots in the same aircraft. Their difficulty, however, was that the machine had been more or less "commandeered" by the squadron's commanding officer, who, not having his own machine available, declared that in no circumstances was he going to miss this big raid. That meant that either the first or second pilot had to stand out. Each protested that he was entitled to go.

The Wing Commander thought it over for a minute, then told them to toss up for it. It was just as dusk was gathering that the aircraft set off. A few hours later the first machine returned. A sergeant pilot and his crew marched into the intelligence room together, un- j ruffled and unexcited, to give their account of the raid. SCOTTISH LADS MASCOT. The rear gunner, a stockily-built Scotsman, was carrying a toy "Scottie" dog as a mascot. "He's been everywhere —Heligoland, Stavanger, France, i over a whole lot of Germany—and now Berlin," he declared. "We went straight to Berlin and ! straight back," said the sergeant pilot. j "We took seven hours exactly." j As they were being interrogated by jan intelligence officer the roar of other I planes returning could be heard overj head. Soon their crews began to fill ! the room. j The captain of the second aircraft, I a young pilot officer, told his story next. They had attacked the power station. "We bombed at 24.00 hours—dead on midnight,'' he said. "Somebody had i been there before us. When we arrived we found the target well on fire. We could see it when we were 25 minutes' flying time away. "We came in more or less north to south and put our stick of bombs down just to the left of this big fire. Then tour more fires started. They were burning with very bright white lights. Altogether we were cruising round over Berlin for about half an hour." FIFTY MINUTES OVER CITY. Many of the bombers were over Berlin at the same time while in other parts of the outskirts those from other, groups taking part in the night's j operations could be seen in the distance. .. | "I. saw eight or ten flares dropping i over Berlin and about a dozen lots of I other people's bombs going down dur- j ing the time we wei'e there," said one pilot. "We spent 50 minutes- over the city. Flares seemed to be dropping' all over the place." Other crews described how they at-! tacked their target from all directions. A stick of bombs from one bomber overshot and fell across an adjacent railway yard. j Another captain and his crew reported that after they had made their attack they saw a fire from 50 miles away when on their return journey. The Wing Commander, in his commandeered aircraft, made three runs over the target. ' "We took about three-quarters of an hour attacking it," he said. "The first two times we were on it too soon for the bomb aimer to release his bombs in time, so, we had to come round a third time. Away over the other side of Berlin I saw some of my other boys at their work." The bomb aimer in this machine declared: "It wasn't worth while going all that way and then not bombing what we had been sent out to bomb, so I didn't let them go until I was dead sure."' COMPREHENSIVE TOUR ROUND. Another pilot described how he i made "a sort of rectangular run all I round Berlin." This was the bomber ! from which members of the crew had jsecn a fire burning on the works 50 miles away on the homeward journey. The pilot said: "At one time when we wore closer, there seemed to be a line, half. a mile long, of white-hot fire." They had dived from 12,000 to 5000 feet to attack the power station. Another objective was attacked at intervals from 11.35 until after one o'clock in the morning. One of the first raiders saw his bombs burst on the target area, and a fairly large fire was burning as he flew away. At almost the same time another pilot, attacking from a slightly lower altitude, dropped his stick of heavy bombs. "I saw them straddle the target," he said, "but was not able to see the full results because I was in a warm corner, thanks to the anti-aircraft batteries and searchlights."

Intense searchlight activity and some haze prevented several other pilots, who made their attacks from various heights and different directions at about this time, from observing results. But when a few minutes after midnight another aircraft dz*opped its high explosives and incendiaries, the haze had cleared sufficiently to enable the pilot to note four fires in the south central part of the target.

At 12.20, following yet another salvo across the buildings, there was a violent explosion and a large fire which could be seen burning fiercely 15 minutes after the attack.

Taking his bearings from a sheet ofi water, one raider dropped his stick of1 heavy bombs on works near the Tegel See, one of Berlin's lakes. Owing to; haze, he was unable to determine the success of this attack, but 20 minutes; later another pilot saw a fire at these works. TWO HUNDRED MILES OF GUNFIRE, j Another pilot who was making his twenty-fourth trip over Germany said: "The first serious opposition was j lover the Zuider Zee. I decided to fly| 1 higher and we met continuous fire all ithe 200 miles from there to Berlin, with hardly a break between guns and searchlight concentrations.

"Several times the aircraft was shaken and I could see bursts of fire immediately underneath us. But none of the planes from our station turned back.

"Our estimated time was nearly up when our navigator saw one of our landmarks. Two heavy guns west of the city started up. Once past them there was very little opposition. I wa? amazed to find it sp slight.

"We drew in from the east and made

a dive attack. It was just like a bit of practice bombing.

"Searchlights and gtins were even more intense on the way back to the Zuider Zee, but we had a pretty good run home."

Describing- the attack on the Junkers works, the first pilot who arrived at the target said:

'•In the light of flares we clearly distinguished the works. The first stick of high-explosive and incendiary bombs burst plumb in the middle of the target. Fires broke out at once arid about 30 seconds after our bombs had burst a building in the north-east of the group blew up with a blinding white flash and a thick pall of heavy white smoke. It looked as though the building had gone up in smoke.

"We came round again and dropped our second stick of high-explosive bombs which again burst on the target The fire at this time was raging fierce ly and we could see it for 60 miles on our return journey.*'

Another pilot found that most of the area was covered by smoke, but he bombed the aero engine works, which he could see. Twenty seconds after his bombs hac; dropped the buildings were well on fire.