CURTAIN OF FIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21370, 14 March 1941, Page 5

CURTAIN OF FIRE

DARING BRITISH AIRMEN MANY FIRES IN BERLIN ALL DEFENCES OVERCOME (omclal Wireless) (Received March 14, noon) RUGBY, March 13 Further accounts of last night’s heavy attack on Berlin show that the Royal Air Force met and overcame all the defences the Nazis were able to put up and reached their objective through a continuous curtain of fire. The attacks lasted several hours. Owing to the moonlight the crews were able to pick out the streets, railways and lakes around the city almost as if they had been flying in daytime. They could easily see for 50 miles. Despite the barrage several aircraft spent a long time over the city. One pilot whose aircraft was caught in the cone of searchlights for half an hour said it was the longest half-hour he had ever known. He had been hovering around the outskirts of Berlin and pin-pointed his position. He then started to fly across the city. The anti-aircraft fire grew fiercer and bursts were all round. Clouds of smoke seemed to fill the air and the light of the searchlights passed the shadow ol' his aircraft, against the clouds of smoke, so that at times it seemed as if there were three or four other aircraft flying in formation around it. Fragments of shells hit the wings and undercarriage, but nothing prevented the pilot and bomb-aimer from completing their task, and they saw their bombs burst on a target in the centre of Berlin. Many pilots reported immense fires in various parts of the city and the glow in the sky could be seen for 100 miles on the way home. Tremendous Explosions Ope pilot attacked a railway junction. He saw the incendiary bombs hit the track and soon afterwards there was a tremendous explosion, followed by small explosions for 15 minutes. Another pilot swooped down through the barrage, machinegunning his objective from just above the rooftops, and then flew on to attack barracks outside the city from the same low level. The industrial area in Bremen was set alight. A target at Hamburg situated in the dock area was repeatedly hit by heavy bombs. During these attacks one of our aircraft extinguished searchlights by machine-gun fire and shot up the military barracks from a height of 50 feet. One Messerschmitt 110 which attempted to interfere in these operations was shot down.