RAID CONDITIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1943, Page 4

RAID CONDITIONS

DESCRIBED BY BOMBER CREWS. ENEMY DEFENCE SERVICES OVERWHELMED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) RUGBY, November 24. Bomber crews reaching Berlin last night saw flares on the clouds when they were 50 miles from the target. They described a dull red glow and the dim outline of streets lit by the previous night’s raid. A pilot making his fourth attack on Berlin said the cloud was a good deal thinner than on Monday night. You could see the city itself through an occasional gap. Soon there was a big area of new fires and one large explosion, although not as large as one on the previous night, lit up a great part of the sky. Though more night fighters were up than on Monday, the number was still fewer than usual during an attack on Berlin. The heavy flak did not seem quite so intense as on the previous night, but was no longer in rough barrage form, while the light flak, of which there was an enormous amount, had no chance of getting within range of the bombers. Searchlights seemed to be used mainly to light up clouds and silhouette the bombers.

The attack began at 8 p.m. and lasted just over 20 minutes, and the bomb load drooped brought the weight of high explosives and incendiaries rained within a week on Berlin to well over 5000 tons. One reason for making so early an attack was to avoid going through an approaching storm with the bomb bays full. Berlin’s defence services must have been overwhelmed by the task of putting out fires started on the night before, and thus preventing them guiding other forces of bombers to the capital. Pathfinders marked out a new area beside the old fires. The crews agreed that the target was extremely well marked. A compact area was lit by brilliant colours throughout the attack. Smoke bursting through the clouds eventually rose 20,000 feet. Reports suggest that enemy fighters were never really able to concentrate over Berlin even by the end of the attack.

Altogether this year Berlin has received about 12,000 tons of bombs. It has had the heaviest total load of any target in Germany during 1943 About 10,000 tons have fallen on Hamburg, 8000 on Essen, Hanover and Cologne, and 7000 on* Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, but it cannot yet be said that Berlin has been “Hamburged,” says a R.A.F. commentator. Berlin is a vaster target than any other in Germany, and requires a far greater weight than Hamburg. Also, Berlin is at a far greater distance from Britain, and difficulties of reaching the target go up sharply in an ascending curve, according to the time aircraft spend over heavliy defended areas. It has been gratifying that the attacks on Berlin this month have not exacted a price such as the target normally demands.