SORTIES OVER GERMANY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 26, 30 July 1940, Page 8

SORTIES OVER GERMANY

PILOT'S EXPERIENCES

BOMBS ON WILHELMSHAVEN

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received July 30, 2 p.m.)

RUGBY, July 29

Broadcasting today, a young Canadian pilot who has served with an R.A.F. bomber squadron since the beginning of the war said:—

"My last raid —a few days ago—was my thirty-fourth sortie against the enemy. It is a rather remarkable thing that in the course of 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 that the aircraft must have been absolutely riddled, for the anti-aircraft fire was coming so close all around us, but when we got back there was not 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 our height. Then, when we got close enough to reach it in a glide, I gradually closed the throttle and dropped. By this time we were pretty well on the target. We dived and let go our bombs. They sailed right across the corner of the largest dock. "The Germans put up a heavy antiaircraft barrage, and heavy stuff burst all over the place. When it is concentrated it shoots up at you as though it is 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 dropped your bombs and you have not got to cross a whole lot of enemy country. 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."