Vivid Stories of Heroism

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 55, 8 March 1944, Page 5

Vivid Stories of Heroism

AMERICANS LOSE 68 BOMBERS (British Official Wireless.) Received Tuesday 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, March 6. The enemy flung in hundreds of fighters in a desperate endeavour to prevent a strong formation of Fortresses and Liberators bombing Berlin today. Flak was flung up in tremendous quantities, bur, in spite of this the Fortresses and Liberators pounded selected targets in Berlin and when they left huge fires were springing up and the Reich capital was hid under a dense pall of grey-black smoke. All the way to the target and on the return journey German fighters came in furious head-on attacks and there were hundreds of fighters in the area between the bombers—and the fighters’ escort, Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings—and the enemy fighters. Stories of heroism on this raid—the second daylight assault on Berlin by American heavy bombers—were told when the bombers returned. One pilot said: “Our waist gunner saved all our lives. We were within shot of the target when one of our engines was knocked out. We stayed in formation for a while but dropped out when we saw that our gas would not hold out. We dropped to 5000 feet and were attacked all the while by Jerry fighters waiting for stragglers. * ‘ Our tail-gunner was hit iu both legs, but the waist gunner patched him up and brought him to the waist. He then manned both the waist guns and continued to man them after being hit square in the face by a 20-millimetre shell. With the right side of his face shot away and bleeding he kept off the fighters and put out a fire that another shell started in the waist. The navigator and bombardier dealt with another fire in the nose. While the fires were raging we were being continually attacked by fighters all the way to the French coast, but the sergeapt kept them off and we flew back on our instruments. ’ ’ A staff-sergeant said his plane was riddled with 20-millimetre shells before they reached the target. The shells smashed the oxygen system and they had to go down to a low level. “About 50 enemy fighters attacked our group. We dived to get away from the fighters and hopped from cloud to cloud to dodge them. Two ME 109’s came in. 1 got the first with the turret gun and he blew up in flames about 50 feet away. I got the second too and saw him spill down and hit the ground.” The loss of 68 bombers and 11 fighters in yesterday’s daylight attack on Berlin is announced in a U.S.A.A.F. communique. Eighty-three enemy fighters were destroyed Allied fighters, but the total destroyed by the bombers is not yet available. It is known, however, that one bomber division alone shot down forty. The communique says: “Divisions ol heavy bombers in great strength escorted by very large formations of fighters attacked factories, airfields and other military installations in the metropolitan district of Berlin yesterday with good results. Bombs were seen to fall on the assigned targets, but some were dropped through cloud. ‘ 4 Resistance from enemy fighters was encountered throughout the trip but the fighter escort engaged them with great success, destroying 83 for the loss of eleven. Fortresses and Liberators destroyed a large number of enemy aircraft, but the total is not yet available. One division alone destroyed at least 40. The escort and support consisted ol hundreds of Mustangs, Lightnings and Thunderbolts of the Eighth A.A.F. and from the Allied Expeditionary Air Force, including R.A.F. Mustangs and Ninth A.I.F. Thunderbolts and Mustangs. From these extensive operations 68 bombers have not returned.’’ A Stockholm message reports that three American bombers landed in Sweden after the Berlin raid, bringing the number of American airmen intern ed in Sweden to 130. Yesterdays raid on France by a record force of nearly 300 Marauders was made by the Ninth A.A.F. GERMAN AIR TECHNIQUE The German radio, explaining the new system under which hour-by-hour air reports are given nightly, said warnings were given to the great danger areas of Germany over a telephone network carrying radio programmes whenever the raiders entered the Reich. The Luftwaffe formed a special “L” Command headed by experienced officers from the Richtofen squadron to direct the recent larger-scale raids on London, according to the Stockholm Aftonbladet’s Berlin correspondent. The L Command last summer began studying methods of penetrating London’s defences and sent reconnaissance formations of Messerschmitt and Fockewulf

fighters to obtain information about the metropolitan defences. The bombers formerly flew above the barrage, but the L Command discovered that it was easier to fly just below the line of shell bursts—a manoeuvre described as * * hairspring ” tactics. The L Command is using two new types of bombers—a large six-motored type evolved from the giant transport and double-fuselaged machine, also four-engined Heinkels from the bulk squadrons. The L Command is using bombs five times the power of the former types. Soon after the Berlin raid an American pilot made a reconnaissance flight over the city alone in a fast but completely unarmed plane to secure the first American aerial photographs ever taken of bomb-torn Berlin. The pilot encountered some flak and was chased by three enemy fighters, but escaped and returned safely with the pictures.