AIR OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 3

AIR OFFENSIVE

ANOTHER POWERFUL ATTACK ON BERLIN HEAVY DAMAGE ADMITTED BY GERMANS. 22 BRITISH PLANES MISSING. LONDON, January 18. Large fires were burning in Berlin when the British heavy bombers returned from the second big raid on the German capital in two nights. Once again, a great weight of bombs was dropped and the Germans themselves admit , that the damage caused was heavy.

The bombers flew most of the way in bright moonlight and many combats with enemy fighters took place. One of the enemy planes was destroyed. Twenty-two British planes are missing. A correspondent who flew in Saturday night’s raid on Berlin said the weight of bombs dropped then was comparable with that the Germans dropped on London in their big attack on April 19, 1941. On that occasion 350 German bombers took part. The R.A.F’s. giant bombers carried much heavier bombs than did the Germans.

Berlin was not the only target of the British air forces last night. Aircraft of Fighter Command were also out on intruder patrols in France, Belgium and Holland. In a 13-hour attack on enemy communications, they shot up goods trains, barges and lorries. The R.A.F, were out over the Channel again today. People on the coast could hear the aircraft going out and heavy explosions and anti-aircraft gunfire were later heard from the other side of the Channel. VIEWED FROM AIRCRAFT BOMBING OF BERLIN. CORRESPONDENT’S DESCRIPTION. Describing his experiences on the first raid over Berlin Richard Dimbleby, the 8.8. C. observer, who flew in a giant four-engined Lancester, said that when over the North Sea on the way to Germany which ever way he looked from the bomber he could see Lancasters. There were 30 or 40 in the group. Below them was thick cloud, but above, in a clear sky, the moon shone brightly. As they approached the German coast he could see flashes as the antiaircraft batteries sent up their barrage. It was not the curtain of fire that one has seen in the movies, he said, but rather a series of winking little flashes. As they flew along the tail gunner kept calling to the squadron leader who was piloting the bomber, informing him of the position of the bursts so that he could take the necessary evasive action. EVADING GROUND FIRE. “And evade them we did,” said Mr Dimbleby. “As we approached Berlin we literally jumped over them. The city was ringed with powerful searchlights, the beams of which were waving and crossing in the sky. After we had been there a little while it seemed, however, as if a number of them had been doused. “All the time we were over the city the flak kept coming up at us, and our bomber was weaving about taking evasive action. The flak seemed to burst in thick yellow puffs, but there were none of the clusters of fire I had been led to expect. Once there was a burst close under us, and it seemed as if we had been pushed under our belly by a giant hand. “Soon after we arrived over Berlin one of the other bombers let go its incendiaries. Suddenly, where a moment before there had been a dark patch in the city, dazzling silver lights came into being. There were hundreds and thousands of them. Score after score of the fire bombs went down, and all over the face of the German capital these giant incandescent flowerbeds spread themselves. FIRES TAKE HOLD. “Gradually the incandescent pinpoints merged, and disappeared in dull, ugly red glows, which betokened the fires taking hold on the roofs and woodwork of the buildings.” Dimbleby then told how his Lancester crossed and recrossed the city three times before the bomb-aimei’ picked up his target. “Then came the most sickening two minutes of the whole flight,” Mr Dimbleby remarked. “We flew straight on through the flak, till the bombaimer pressed the button, and our biggest bomb, a 3i-tonner, went hurtling down to its target.” Mr Dimbleby did not see it burst, but remarked that it was curious to think that only a .few thousand feet below perhaps Hitler or Goering, or Himmler, or Goebbels, was cowering in a shelter, and that the offices of the men who are controlling Germany might be within the bursting radius of the bomb. The return journey was uneventful. There were no night-fighters and very little anti-aircraft fire. As they passed back across the North Sea greetings were exchanged with a small convoy making its way along the coast'. They landed on their aerodrome just before dawn, having been nine hours on the flight.