MASS OF FLAMES

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1940, Page 7

MASS OF FLAMES

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. British Official Wireless.

OSTEND'S DOCK AREA EXPERIENCE OF PILOTS LONDONERS HEARTENED

Rec. 5.5 p.m. Rugby, sept. Royal Air Force pilots who took part in the attack on the invasion ports on Tuesday night described the flying conditions as perfect. There was bright moonlight with no cloud over the enemy's coastline. The British pilots could clearly mak.i out docks and railways along the quaysides. "We got hardly any opposition at all," commented one British pilot. There were a few searchlights but nothing to worry about. It was just like bombing on practice raids. "I should say there were dozens of fires burning at Ostend when we got there: It was as light as day. We ran inland, turned round and ran up on the railway sidings. Our first stick of bombs started seven or eight fires. ' It looked as though we had hit an ammunition train, for explosions broke out — all sorts of colours, white, red, yellow. Then as we turned to make a second run up a terrific upheaval of stuff came up like a gigantic mushroom, thin at the bottom and spreading right out at the top. We were flying at 5000 feet and the force of the explosion threw us up about 50 feet. ' "Feeling Pretty- Happy." "In some paris of the dock area one could not see anything. It was just a mass of flames, obliterating the ground. Two of my crew live in the south of London, and they had had their homes destroyed. You can imagine they were feeling pretty happy about this show of ours." After the second attack, when more fires were started, this aircraft circled round for another five or six minutes to have a look. "One thing struck me particularly," the pilot remarked. "The town itself. barring a few houses on the edge of the railway yard, appeared untouched. At any rate there were no fires or any other indication that it had been bombed. The fires were all on the dockside." Another officer in the same squadron said: "We had seen explosions from the enemy's coastline about five minutes after leaving our own coast, and they continued intermittently most of the way out. We went straight into Ostend from the sea. As we were running up I could see fires and explosions still going on. Having got rid' of my first lot of bombs, I went out to sea again and then came back and did precisely the same thing all over again."