PILOTS' STORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1940, Page 7

PILOTS' STORIES

British Official Wireless.

ATTACK IN MOONLIGHT DIVE IN FACE OF GUNFIRE NEW ZEALANDER SCORES

Rec. 6.30 p.m. Rugby, Sept. 21. Moonlight aided the British raiders in their attack on Flushing. A squadron leader who took part in the attack stated that even from a considerable height he could plainly see the docks and everything in them. "We came up by the waterway at a pretty good height, put the nose of the machine down, and made a dive attack," he said. "Searchlights picked us up and the guns kept on at us until we turned off. Our bombs fell right across some warehouses on the dockside, and though I was too busy weaving in and out to see very much, my second pilot, who had a good look round, told me that we started three small fires and a large one, which may have been a petrol dump. The captain of another aircraft who came along a bit later said he found our fires still going and stoked them up with a few more bombs."' "Dived in After Him." A pilot-officer who followed the squadron-leader into the attack said: "We were just getting into position for the run in when we saw him dive down with a flare all coming up behind him. We saw his bombs burst and four fires start. Then we went out to sea a little way, turned, and dived in after him." One of the pilots who bombed Ostend, a New Zealander who was recently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, was confident of having damaged a large supply ship in the harbour. Two Hudsons of the coastal command scored direct hits on two enemy ships off the Dutch coast during Friday night. They had completed routine patrols and, finding they had plenty of petrol in reserve, searched Dutch coastal waters for possible targets. One aircraft found a destroyer near Ameland. It was barely visible, even in the moonlight, and the pilot had difficulty in keeping it in sight as he prepared to dive-bomb. One salvo was seen to fall 20 yards on the warship s beam. Supply Ship Hit. The pilot next found a convoy sheltering in the lee of a Dutch Island. Selecting a vessel of between 6000 and 8000 tons for a target, he made a dive attack with explosive and incendiary bombs. Part of the salvo hit the ship and burst behind the bridge. ^ "The explosion blew us upwards, said the pilot. "Heavy anti-aircraft fire opened from the shore, but our chief danger was from flying bits of burning debris from the ship. I went down to the water to avoid the enemy s fire. From a long way off we 'could see the glow from the ship." A second Hudson attacked a ship just visible under the low moon as a^ long, narrow outline on the water. ' There was a huge flash as bombs hit a solid target," said the pilot. "A big explosion followed four seconds laier. We were at 500 feet and going away fast, but inside the aircraft we could hear the thud of an explosion, and its force threw us forward. The law we saw was a shower of burning debris."