PLANES IN SNOWSTORM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 17, 31 October 1940, Page 5

PLANES IN SNOWSTORM

PILOTS’ GRAPHIC ACCOUNTS

(United Press Association—Copyright'> (Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 30. The severe conditions in which last night’s raid on Berlin was carried out is graphically described by the pilots engaged. The raid was the earliest Berlin has yet experienced, the first of the small striking force of heavy bombers .reaching the capital at 9 p.m. A snowstorm which hampered the airmen over the last 100 miles of Germany, was raging iver Berlin and made the task of target-location extremely difficult, but after dropping flares the first raiders succeeded in finding their targets. Driving snow, however, - obscured observation of the results. “ The early part of the journey to Berlin was grand,” said the pilot of the first aircraft to reach Berlin. “ Visibility was excellent and we could see the stars in an almost cloudless sky. Then quite suddenly we ran into a snowstorm which kept us company all the way to Berlin and most of the way back. Some of the fine powdery snow blew into my cockpit and lay two inches thick on the dashboard recess. To make matters worse the windscreens in the two front cockpits were completely covered, so we flew for many miles almost blind, depending entirely on our instruments. We had hoped to get clear of the snow before reaching Berlin, but if anything it was worse when we arrived. Still, we managed to find the target—a large electrical works —and bombed it through the snow.” Another pilot who visited the outskirts of Berlin was less fortunate. u We ran into the same fine powdery snow, and at one time I looked like a flying snowman,” he said. “ When we. first ran into the snow we climbed, hoping to find things better higher up, but almost at once the controls began to show signs of freezing up. At 3000 feet the temperature was still 2 degrees below zero, so we came down lower still and for 35 minutes flew at a couple of thousand feet Once again we ran into a terrific antiaircraft barrage, though even that didn’t warm us up much, and for a great deal of the time ice cracking on the machine made a noise like hundreds of machine-gun bullets.”