R.A.F. OVER BERLIN
PLANE’S “HOT RECEPTION”
“FLYING ONIONS” USED
(British Official Wireless.; RUGBY, Nov. 11
Details beyond the terse account given l in the official reports concerning the Royal Air Force flights over Berlin, have now been revealed.
When the first pilot to make the flight returned, he said that when he was over the German capital he went down, checked his position and found he had made no mistake in his calculations. A searchlight picked him up, but there was no active opposition. The aircraft crews were using oxygen and their special work exposed them to icy blasts. Their hands and feet became numbed and they had to come down into the warmer atmosphere below. There was a warm reception. The Berlin defence plastered the aircraft with every gun it could bring to bear. But, as the pilot automatically worked, the Berlin defence organisation must have been badly shaken. Not one shot went home. During the flight over Germany, pilots report the appearance of “flying onions.” A string of material of the size and appearance of a string of onions, is shot in the air where it remains in the presumed course of the aircraft with, the intention of setting it on fire.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 13 November 1939, Page 7
Word Count
204R.A.F. OVER BERLIN Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 13 November 1939, Page 7
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