BOMBED IN DAYLIGHT

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 248, 21 October 1942, Page 2

BOMBED IN DAYLIGHT

TARGETS IN GERMANY MOSQUITOES OUT AGAIN NEW ZEALANDERS IN LE CREUSOT RAID.

B.O.W.

RUGBY. Oct. 20.

An Air Ministry commimique states that this afternoon Mosquitoes of Bomber Cominand, fiying singly, attacked objeetives rteajr Hanover, Wilhelmshaven and Bremen, where bombs dropped from a low level were seen to bisrst in the centre of the city. One of our aircraft is missing. The daylight sweeps over Holland last week by Mustangs of the Army Co-operation Command resulted in the destruction of 19 railway engines and seven tugs, while numerous trucks were destroyed or damaged. A military car was also attacked and Lurst into flanies and ran off the road. The primary object of these operations, says the Air Ministry News Service, was to destroy and interfere with enemy communications. Before the pilots took off they were warned to take the greatest possible care to e-nsure that the civilian population did not suffer from the attacks. The s>ght of the R.A.F. evidently had a beartening effect on the oppressed people, many of whom stopped their work in the fields to wave encouragenient. Some of the pilots travelling at tree-top level waved back.

LE CREUSOT CASUALTTES. Vichy radio says that the number killed in the Le Creusot raid has risen to 57. Sixty houses were destroyed and 300 damaged. New Zealand pilots were in five out of six of the first Lancasters to bomb the Le Creusot armament works in the 94-bomber raid last week, says the Press Association's special London correspondent. New Zealand navigators, bomb-aimers and, airgunners also took part. They included Pilot Officers R. O. Calvert, D.F.C., Waikato; D. H. Palmer, "Wellington; A. R. Loader, Taihape; R. W. Stewart, Whakatane; Flight Sergeants V. S. Moore, D.F.M., Taumarunui; H. W. Player. Petone; Sergeants P. L. Singer, A. M. Singer (twins), J. L. Williams, Gisborne; R. CTosgrove, Auckland; J. W. Collbert, Te Puia Springs; D. V. Davies, Raetihi; J. B. Frice, Grey Lynn; R. Menzies, Hastings^ R. B. Pickford, Rata. All agreed that the raid was "a piece of cake." They met only slight flak over the target, but it stopped after the first two bombers released their bombs. Player said: "We had no exciting incident on the whole trip. We prepared for the take-off shortly after midday and soon picked up other sections and then swept out over the ccast, fiying almost wing tip to wing tip. The weather was perfect. The only bad spot was over Uie: sea when we flew at nought feet. "We hedge-hopped over most of France, but climbed when nearing ihe target and my heart sank when I sighted a thick cloudbank as I thought it might upset the whole operation, but luckily it cleared. . LIKE A FACK OF CARDS. "I have never seen buildings disappear like they did when our 'bombs i'ell. They collapsed like a pack of cards. It was better than any earthauake.

"We saw little sign of life over France, only a few people working in the fields and a ploughman who thiew himself flat when he heard the roar of the engines. Others outside a village waved and gave the V sign. Menzies said: "The worst part of the trip was waiting for something which did not happen. It seemed impossible that the Germans would let us get away scot free." Moore, who recently spent 36 hours in the sea in a dinghy when forced down after a raid against Bremen, said: "Le Creusot was the best show I have had. Jerry was conspicuous Ly his absence." Commenting on the New Zealanders' part, a group captain said: "They are a credit to the Dominion, and also to the men who trained them. We always look on the New Zealanders as . the * baekbone of our bomber crews. They are grand chaps."