READ "THRILLER."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 3, 4 January 1941, Page 8

READ "THRILLER."

ON BOMBING RAID

Wireless Operator Had No Fears. British Official Wireless. (Reed, noon.) RUGBY, Jan. 3. A journey Lo and from Germany was graphically described by a Royal Air Force pilot for the Air Ministry news service. These long journeys are often monotonous, but he says: "Ono night I thought there was almost too much excitement. My bomber was on its way home after running into intense anti-aircraft fire during tlii- successful bombing of an oil plant. Ice begun to form on the air screw, and though wo went up and down to get out of the layer of cold ami moisture which is always apt to produce ice, it was not at all easy to find hotter weather.

'"The ice wna driving back off the air screw and hitting the fuselage. Some of the largest pieces were making holes in it and letting in the cold. The holes were not very large, but pieces of ice were driving so hard against us that I wondered for a moment if it was shrapnel. Aa I was second pilot and had not much to do at the moment, I thought I would visit the wireless operator. I found him engrossed in a \Vild west thriller and paying no attention at all to the ice that was cutting up the fuselage or the cold air coming , in. He. seemed quite disappointed to be dragged back from the adventures of cowboys to the dull prosaic reality of a trip over Germany at 1 a.m. and the monotony of anti-aircraft fire, electric storms or ice coming off the air screws."