BEST OF THE LOT

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1940, Page 8

BEST OF THE LOT

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

British Official Wireless.

PLASTERING OF BERLIN - ii EXPERIENCE OF PILOT THRILLING STORY TOLD

Rec. 5.5 p.m. , Rugby, Sept 24. A 21 years' old bomber puot of the Royal Air Force described in a broadcast to-night his experiences in last night's raids in and around Berlin. He blew up part of a gasworks in a north-east district of the city. "This was my 25th raid over Germany, and it was about the most successful of the whole lot," he said. "Our squadron had been to Berlin before, but I had not. They had sent me to Hamm instead, and my crew were a bit fed up about that. We were told about 5 o'clock yesterday that the Berlin show was on, and we knew it was going to be on a pretty large scale. "Our particular target was a large gasworks to the north-east of Berlin, about four or five miles from the centre of the city. There is a railway running right alongside it, a large open space to the east and a lake about a mile north-east of it. Those were our three landmarks. Conditions Ideal. "As we neared Berlin the cloud beneath us closed up, and over the city ilzeli it was quite clear. In fact the conditions were pretty well ideal for night bombing. The trip out was entirely without incident. We were absolutely on our course, because through gaps in the cloud we were able to pinpoint ourselves on a number of places along the route. There was some gunftre round the towns to the south, of course, but nobody bothered us. "The first sign of any real activity came as we approached Berlin. We got within 20 miles of it, and suddenly five flares appeared in the sky. They were being dropped by other bombers that had got there before us. No sooner had that happened than up went the barrage. "As we got nearer the number of flares increased," the pilot continued. "I counted 10, but as we were coming away after the bombing there were well over 20. We could judge roughly the shape of the city from the gunfire around the outskirts. Even before we got over Berlin the flares made it light enough to pick out important features. "We could see some of the others bombing, and to the north-east there was a small chain of fires burning. I said, to my navigator, 'We will make for those and see what is to be seen there.' As we approached we could see that these fires were just ' a little south of our target, which was a large gasworks on that side of Berlin. "A Bit of Luck." "That was a brt of luck for us. It meant we were able to make our tracks in the actual run up on the target. One usually has to make a dummy run first, but on this occasion we were able to bomb the first time with only a few minor corrections. , "At first we thought we had missed, because we saw only normal bombing bursts. About 10 seconds later there was a violent explosion in the centre of the stick. I think the wireless operator noticed it first. He was looking out through the astro hatch and called out, 'It's a beauty. Tt's blown everything up.* He said later he saw the flash, and then a great pillar of fire seemed to come up in the air. "All this time we had been getting a certain amount of fire from heavy guns on the ground, but nothing to worry us much, although away through the cloud we saw another of our bombers caught in the searchlights and come under very heavy fire. "As we left we could see other people bombing our fires. There were practically continuous salvoes of bombs falling in various parts of the city. It was the biggest show I have ever seen. The bomb aimer said he counted at least 20 fires burning. You could still see theni 35 miles away, after which we ran into cloud again and the view was obscured. "We were second back to the base on our return, but all the others returned within an hour or so. Everyone reported he had dropped his bombs."