JOINT RAID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1942, Page 3

JOINT RAID

BRITISH & UNITED STATES BOMBERS FIRST OF ITS KIND IN EUROPE ATTACKS DRIVEN HOME IN SPITE OF LOSSES. DARING AMERICAN PILOT DECORATED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 4. An Air Ministry communique states that today, for the first time, members of the United States Army Air Force took part in offensive operations in conjunction with the Bomber Command. In the early morning' Bostons, six of which were manned by American crews, raided enemy aerodromes in Holland. The attacks were pressed home from a very low level in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire. At Haastede and Alkmaar bombs were seen to burst on hangars, administrative buildings and dispersal points. Another airfield was heavily machinegunned and an enemy fighter on the ground was set on fire. An enemy patrol-vessel off the Dutch coast was also attacked.

Thwe American-manned aircraft are missing. The Commander-in-Chief of the R.A.F. Bomber Command, Air Marshal Harris, in a letter to the commanding general of the Bomber Command of the United States Army, on the eve of this first participation of United States personnel in collaboration with the R.A.F. in an offensive against German-occupied territory, said: “Our peoples have long celebrated July 4 as Independence Day, and from tomorrow it takes on a further significance as the day on which the first bombs were dropped by United States air-crews from American aircraft in enemy-occupied territory.” He continued: “I wish you and all those taking part the best of luck. I know your magnificent youngsters will fetch

a grunt out of the enemy with the first punch.” In additional details of the raid, United States Army headquarters in the European theatre of operations states that considerable damage was done to aircraft on the ground and buildings, as well as casualties among the personnel at Alkmaar, Valkenburg and at Haastede, where about 150 Germans in flying kit were caught flat-footed, as if on a pay parade. These troops dispersed in all directions under heavy machine-gun fire. One American pilot was hit by flak over his target and the propellor and nose section of his starboard engine was shot off. The plane hit the ground, damaging the starboard wing and knocking a hole in the bottom of the fuselage, but the pilot recovered control and, leaving the target area on one; engine, was confronted with intense fire from a flak tower. He drove directly at the tower, firing his front guns, and the lower ceased firing. He reached home on one engine without further incident.

Major-General Eisenhower has awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to the pilot, Captain Charles C. Kegelman, who is thus the first member of the American forces in Europe to be awarded a decoration for galyantry in action against the enemy. An official communique states that, two enemy bombers which flew over districts in the North Midlands last evening dropped bombs at several points and caused some damage and casualties, but both were shot down by fighters of a famous Polish squadron.