RAIDING WITH R.A.F.

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23086, 31 July 1940, Page 9

RAIDING WITH R.A.F.

CANADIAN PILOT’S EXPERIENCES THIRTY-FOUR SORTIES AGAINST ENEMY (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received July 30, 8 p.m.) RUGBY, July 29. In a broadcast, a young Canadian pilot who has served with a Royal Air Force bomber squadron since the beginning of the war, said: “My last raid —a few days ago—was my thirty-fourth sortie against the enemy, and it’s a rather remarkable thing that in all those operations my aircraft was hit only once. That was at Bergen, when we were after a couple of German cruisers. “A good many times I would have sworn the aircraft must have been absolutely riddled, the anti-aircraft fire was coming so close all round us, but when we got back there has not been a mark on it. “On this thirty-fourth raid we managed to bring off quite a decent effort. Our target was at Hamburg. We got over the city all right, but there was a lot of low cloud about and we could not find our objective, so we went up to Wilhelmshaven. We were after the docks there. . "On the way to Wilhelmshaven we increased height. Then, when we had got close enough to reayh it in a glide, I gradually closed the throttle and dropped. By this lime we were pretty well on the target. We. dived and let go the bombs. They sailed right across the corner of the largest dock, “They put up a heavy anti-aircraft barrage, of course —down, below the tracer, then on top of that, bursting all over the place, the heavier stuff. When it’s concentrated it shoots up at you as though it were coming out of the mouth of a volcano. But that was one of the thirty-three times we did not get hit. “The barrage was pretty intense, but to my mind a target like that is relatively easy compared with locating and attacking, say. a factory in the Ruhr. For one thing it’s bigger and stands out better, and for another you get away out to the open sea when you have bombed, and you have not got to cross a whole lot of enemy country. “A Pretty Good Pasting” “Don’t think I mean by that that we are at all shy about going into the Ruhr—They get -a pretty good pasting there most nights in the week. “On these trips it’s a grand thing to know you have a good crew to back you up. I’ve been lucky there. Right from the start I kept the same crew up to the time I left the squadron, except for the second pilot. He was with me until about five weeks ago, but then they made him captain of an aircraft with a crew of his own. He was a Canadian, too. He came from Calgary. “Of the crew of six, two were Canadians, two were Scotsmen, and the other two were Englishmen, so we were a pretty representative lot. One of the Scotsmen had such a strong accent that at times, until I got used to him, I could not understand what he was saying. The other one was not nearly so bad, so I used to get him to interpret. “The first time we ,flew over enemy territory was back in the winter, when we did leaflet dropping. That seems a very long time ago now. In between there has been the Norwegian business. Then followed the invasion of the Low Countries. “We were operating there and after that we were working in direct support of the Allied land forces in an attempt to hold up the German advance into France. “More recently we have been concentrating on Germany itself. We have given them something to think about. Theye is no doubt about that. “During the operations over France we had what are probably our most spectacular efforts. We were attacking enemy, depots and troop concentrations in the area round Hirson. We saw another of our bombers getting heavily fired at from the woods, so we thought we had better have a look. “Having spotted the machine-gun post where the fire was coming from we silenced four of them. Then we hit an ammunition store or a petrol dump with a couple of bombs. That sent the whole works up. Every now and then on the way back my windscreen was lit up by the light of another explosion, and by the time the last went off we were two miles away.” MUNITIONS WORK IN BRITAIN EXCESSIVE HOURS NOT WANTED (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, July 29. A continuation of excessive hours of work is likely to defeat the object of increased production, for which the increased hours were temporarily -introduced in war industries. The Minister for Labour (Mr Ernest Bevin) has sent a series of suggestions, drawn up in consultation with the British Employers’ Confederation and the Trades Union Congress to all firms producing munitions and war material. These notes say; “A continuation of the seven-day working week with average working week of between 70 and 80 hours will quickly cause a rapid decrease in individual productive Capacity owing to abnormal strain. If prolonged, the output achieved in seven days will'become less than what could have been achieved ■ with the same group of workers in a shorter period. It is necessary, therefore, that the average hours of work should be reduced to a lower level, the ideal being a figure which will give, under existing conditions, the maximum output. “It is not easy to determine this figure, which varies according to the circumstances of the different industries, but experience shows that it is materially below the general hours at present being worked on war production. Tt may not be practicable to effect the necessary adjustment at once, in which case immediate provision for adequate rest periods will assist in preventing undue fatigue.” . The Minister therefore states that the labour force must be speedily increased but while this is taking place —and new labour will have to be trained for the work—the strain on workers must be relieved by an immediate reduction of hours. Where practicable. relief workers should be called upon, if possible, for (wo day and two night shifts. The Minister's notes include an illustration of the rotas which could be -worked in factories to gain the desired result. Industrial experts are agreed that a 55-hour week is most satisfactory in war time and is likely to effect the maximum production. The Ministry of Labour has issued an order authorising factory inspectors to give directions that munition factories must arrange for the employment of the necessary number of persons to maintain medical supervision, nursing and first aid, and welfare supervision of the workers .employed by them.