BOMBERS' SHUTTLE RAID

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 149, 25 June 1943, Page 6

BOMBERS' SHUTTLE RAID

GOOD MIDSUMMER TACTICS Rec. 2 p.m. RUGBY, June 24. By flying to North Africa the force of Lancaster bombers which returned today was able to strike mudh further into Axis territory than would normally have been possible at midsummer. With the night so short, the journey to Friedrichshafen —more than 500 miles from London—and back to base would have meant that the bombers would have had to fly through both fighter defence and gun defended areas in daylight. It is 750 miles on from Friedrichshafen to the nearest point on the North African coast, even if the bombers had flown in a perfectly straight line, but most of the way would be either over sea or over country that certainly would not be so heavily defended as Germany or northern France. Spezia is about 700 miles from London. Describing the violent storms which the bombers encountered from the coast of France right through to the Rhine, one pilot said that the electricity made the hair on his hands stand on end and that when he touched the throttle he got a series of mild but continuous shocks. There were circles of light round the propeller tips. Beyond ■■ the Rhine the weather cleared, and as the crews came over Lake Constance they saw the whole shape of the lake very clearly in the light of an almost full moon. At first only one or ;two searchlights probed the sky around Friedrichshafen, but when the first flares went down the guns opened up and many more searchlights went on. The report of a squadron leader says, "Though the target was so small and so far inside Germany, there is no doubt that the Lancasters found it and bombed it. The attack was very well concentrated, and fires started at once." With only three engines running, this squadron leader decided to try to find a way between the mountain peaks of the Alps instead of climbing, over them. He came to a dead end —a black wall of rock at the end of a mountain valley. He had to make a right turn and go back the way he j had come. At his second attempt he found a way through. The reception of the pilots in North Africa was summed up by a pilot officer. "They practically gave us the freedom of the city," he said. "It was marvellous to have all the gifts we wanted—lemons, oranges, eggs, tomatoes, and plums." For the return journey and the attack on the big Italian naval base at Spezia the Lancasters took off before dusk. There was no moon, but the sky was perfectly clear, and they easily found their target. There was ] not much opposition over Spezia, but over Genoa a ' considerable barrage was put up.—B.O.W.