THRILLING STORY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21228, 26 September 1940, Page 7

THRILLING STORY

RAIDS OVER GERMANY “IDEAL FOR BOMBING” EXPLOITS BY PILOT (United Press Asn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 24 A 21-year-old bomber pilot of the Royal Air Force described in a broadcast his experiences in last night’s raids in and around Berlin. He blew up part of a gasworks in the northeast district of the city. 1 “This was my 25th raid over Germany, and it was about the most successful of the whole 25.” said the pilot. “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 ud about that. We were told at about 5 o’clock yesterday that the Berlin show was on, and we knew it was going to be j on a pretty large scale. : “Our particular target was the i largest gasworks, which is situated . to the north-east of Berlin, and about i four or five miles from the centre of ( the city. | “As we neared Berlin the cloud ! beneath us closed up, and over the ! city itself it was quite clear—in fact, conditions were pretty well ideal for night bombing. Small Chain of Fires “There was some gunfire round ! towns to the south, of course, but nnbodv hothered 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 got there before us. No sooner had that happened than up went the barrage. j “As we got nearer, we could see : some of the others bombing, and to • the north-east there was a small j chain of fires burning. j “As we approached, we could see ! that these fires were just a little south of our actual target, which was the large gasworks on that side of Berj lin. That was a bit of luck for us. i It meant that we would be able to j make our attacks 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 the normal bombing bursts. About ten seconds later there were violent explosions in the centre of tne stick. I think the wireless operator noticed it first; he was looking out through his ‘astro-hatch,” and called out: ‘lt’s a beauty! It’s blown everything 1 up!’ He said later that he saw a flash, and then a great pillar of fire seemed to come up in the air. Very Heavy Fire ! “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 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 cit.y. It was the biggest show ! I have ever seen. The bomb-aimer said he counted at least 20 fires burning. We could still see them 35 miles away, after which we ran into cloud I again and the view was obscured. We j were the second machine back at the base, but all the others returned within an hour or so, and everyone reported he had dropped his bombs.”