"VERY UNEVENTFUL"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 27, 2 February 1943, Page 5

"VERY UNEVENTFUL"

BERLIN RAID

RUGBY, Jan. 31. Pilots and observers of five of the Mosquitoes that bombed Berlin on Saturday expressed amazement at the lack of opposition., Both in the morning and the afternoon only two or three balloons were flying over the German capital. Flak was sparse and inaccurate, and only two fighters were seen, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

The time-table allotted to the raiders was carried out to the second. In fact, the morning raiders returned to base two minutes ahead of schedule, despite the round trip of 1200 miles. "Cloud ran out, and bless my soul, we were over Berlin," said one observer. "We started unloading our contribution to the festivities,"

Squadron-Leader R. W. Reynolds, D.F.C., who led the morning raid, was on his fifty-fifth operation. He said it was all very uneventful. They arrived over Berlin at precisely 11 a.m. and within a few seconds had dropped their bombs.

Air Marshal Harris sent a message to the air officer commanding the bomber group from which the Mosquitoes attacked Berlin. "Please convey to all concerned, particularly the crews of the aircraft, my warmest congratulations on the magnificent daylight attack they carried out over Berlin," he said. "Their bombs coincided with Goering's attempt to broadcast to the German people on the tenth anniversary of Hitler's usurpation of power, and cannot have failed to cause consternation in Germany, and encouragement to the oppressed peoples of Europe."—B O.W