The First, 1000 Bomber Raid

Observation Post, Volume 1, Issue 26, 13 November 1942, Page 3

The First, 1000 Bomber Raid

(Condensed from an Article in “Service r News,” England.) In the northern dusk on May 30, 1250 British ’planes roared . down the, run- ' ways of English airfields, lifted 3000 tons of high explosives across the Eng' lish Channel and delivered against Germany the greatest mass air bom bardinent in history. - The objective was Cologne, fifth largest city of Germany. Bombed at the rate of 30 tons per minute, 90 minutes in all sufficed to leave an inferno “too gigantic to be real.’’ Five hundred anti-aircraft guns were overwhelmed, j 20,000 : people killed, 54,000 wounded and chemical, synthetic oil, explosive, ' and rubber industries’ were smashed to I. atoms. Five days later Cologne was , still burning. I, ■ 1 1 Days later, a traveller from Cologne 1 reached Switzerland with a copy of the 1 Koelnische Zeitung, Cologne’s leading.’ newspaper, now struggling to carry on 1 1 amidst the ruined city. The Zeitung fl wrote: “Those who survived the night < of May 30 and who on the morrow > Idoked at the city were fully aware , ! that they had said Farewell forever . . . 1 to their . . . The character i and even the . traditions of the city .1 are gone forever. ” . I: Wellingtons, . the two-engined stand- 1 bys of the British Bomber Command, 11 Stirlings and Halifaxes, four-engined' 1 improved 1941 jobs, and the still secret J Lancasters made “the sky over Cologne fl •'as; busy as Piccadilly Circus.” The ! great Hohenzollern Railway bridge 1 over the Rhine was smashed with a dir- ' ect hit and the many tracked railway j yard leading to the station was shatter- , ed. The Vulcan, Rheinfelz and K. G. 1 ■ Mauser munitions factories, the Kalk ■ and Humbold Deutz engine plant, the ■ Koln-Nippes railroad works and the Franz Clouth synthetic . rubber plant ' were laid to waste. The whole of the I city, west of the river, was a mass of flame six miles wide and under the hellish glare, the British bombers had gone' 1 home, was broken only by the roar and crackle of great fires that burned for ■ four days or more. Yet, standing serene and unscathed amid the blazing inferno ' ■ reared the beautiful High Gothic Cathedral, the monument of the old un- ■ Prussian Germany of the Holy Empire, deliberately avoided by the R.A.F. who in so doing gave up a chance to smash the . railroad ‘ which sheltered close be- ! hind it. ' ■ . b ; BACK TO THE CELLARS ! The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, mote accustomed to gloating, than to gloom- | ing, first claimed that a mere 70-odd , British ’planes had started a few “at- ! tic fires which were soon under con- ! trol” and that “the -burned-out remains of the raiders lined the fields of Cologne-’’ In actual fact the British flosses were 44 /‘failed to returns,” about 4 per cent of the striking force. The Nazi S.S. added fuel to the flames of hatred, already stirring amongst the masses, by ordering all people back to their cellars where many were roasted to death by the fires. - At least thirteen firemen were burned to death in synthetic asbestos suits. Back in the briefing room of an R.A.F. station, -the boys of a Lancaster bomber, Britain’s super ’plane which carried

the heaviest bombs of those flung on the target, told a first-hand story of the Said. FIERY GLOW “We took off like a fairy. It took me all my time to keep the Lancasteron the ground until she had flying speed. As soon as we gained altitude we could see the fiery glow of our target. I know that sounds incredible but the Wellingtons had done their job so well with their incendiaries that the area was just one great landscape of fire. Our job was H.E. and we merely did the work of demolition squads. -There wasn’t a point that wasn’t on fire. < | We heard that the flak at the start was heavy, but within a few -minutes I of.the .peak of the raid, the ground gunners and searchlight crews were blown out of their holes and it was the quietest time I ’ve known for months over Germany. Our crowd was everywhere, to our port, behind us, in front of us, in fact wherever you looked and all at different heights. We came in from the-north-west at our operational height and, with the smoke luckily blowing to the east, we could see the burning city in good relief. We dropped our first big one and lifted a good four hundred feet on the release. We could not spot our hits even though some of our bombs Were the biggest ever, the flashes were completely lost in the roaring mass below. Although talking between ’planes is taboo, someone on the radio kept up an incessant “ Oi, Oi,” and it was “Oi, Oi,’’ alright, too. One of my chaps got the hiccups and although I searched the ’plane on the inter-com from the front bombardier to the rear gunner, I couldn’t find who it was although, whoever had them kept saying, turn her on her back and I’ll drink my coffee the wrong way . up; that ’ll cure the bloody . things. | As soon as we finished our run, the Bombardier reported “all gone ’ and we. went upstairs to our return level. There was nothing to see, at least, you know what I mean, everything was a flaming mass wherever you looked and there were many others lined up waiting their turn to drop their eggs, so we hopped it. As we left for home we did have time to see the silly fake fires started by the Germans some miles from Cologne, but they were so obviously camouflage and out of keeping with • the real job it was a waste of time lighting them. I On the way back we had a scrap ,or I two with M.E. ’s, but. we all felt so blamed fit that nothing got within talk- ■ ing distance, our concentrated fire was I too warm for them whichever way they ! came. Our tail gunner seemed to think I that it was his job solely to guard us. Even when they were beyond his arc, he kept asking “more port, sir, and I’ll just get him. ’ ’ Once, when a lone M.E. came at us from below, he yelled, “On her back sir, and he’s mine.” I think he was the one who had hiccups. We were all racing to get home and in the clear moonlight we passed Halifaxes, Stirlings and Wellingtons, all going hell-bent for their bases. The whole trip of 680 miles there and back was just an evening’s reconaissance and we landed in the ddrk not more than three hours from take-off to landing. They gave us egg and bacon for breakfast.