GERMAN BOMBING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20507, 18 March 1941, Page 4

GERMAN BOMBING

“WASTED EFFORT" OPINION OF N.Z. PILOT morale of people German bombing from the air and the effect it had upon a New Zealander who is piloting two-seater fighters in the R.A.F. are described in a letter from him to friends in Wellington. “Pity help any Jerry I get in my sights,” was his reaction to the machine-gunning of unarmed people in a village street. “We were in London on a night that Jerry put on a big raid,” he wrote. “This was our first experience of a really big one and I can tell you it was not very nice. I admit I had the wind up for a while (Who wouldn’t?), but one very quickly gets used to it, and, believe me, now we hardly take any notice, as London is a big place, and anyway if your name is on one it’s just too bad. On this occasion Jerry started with parachute flares; then came incendiary bombs followed by high explosive ones. It was a terrific racket, and the guns gave Jerry more than he bargained for. We saw two big bombers shot down in flames. “A most impressive feature is the calmness of the London people. Police, firemen, A.R.P. workers, firstaid units, and others' just carry on with tlieir work, and in restaurants the waitresses go on serving as usual. Jerry’s biggest mistake is in thinking he can break their spirit by indiscriminate bombing. Actually it builds up the morale of these wonderful people. I can assure yon now that, come what may, they will never be beaten. Injunction from Bombed “I toured the East End where the poorer people live, and it was a pitiful sight. The Germans apparently cruised around at about 20,000 feet and let their bombs go over the residential parts in an effort to terrorise the people, but, as I have said, it is a wasted effort. Seeing us in Air Force uniforms lots of them told us to ‘get one for us,’ meaning a Jerry, of course.

“I have been in a village street when unarmed men, women, and children have been machine-gunned from the air, and pity help any Jerry I get in my sights. “You remember my greatest wish was to get into two-seater fighters. Well, I have been fortunate enough to be posted to a squadron of the latest, and am now on my station ‘somewhere in England.’ Our planes are ‘the goods,’ and all of our equipment is of the very best. Jerry

hasn’t much chance if he forgets to run for home, as he mostly does when he sees our fighters approaching. They are too windy now to come over in daylight in big formations, and when small ones, say three or four, do, they are usually quickly cleaned up if they don’t escape in the clouds. “I started this letter about a week ago and since then we have flown our squadron down to ‘somewhere else’ in the country. It has been snowing lately, and on our trip down the weather was very dirty, but we didn’t sight any Jerries about. N Absence of Fear “We are now in the thick of things and have a good chance of making a name for our squadron or getting a job pushing up daisies. Anyway, here’s hoping. My fellow-pilots and air-gunners are all very fine chaps, and all are as game as Ned Kelly. It was a bit of a shock recently to have tea with a couple in the mess and to hear at breakfast that they had both ‘gone west’ while on patrol. It is hard to explain the atmosphere in which we live, but we just don’t think of the dark side, and this absence of fear among the air . crews is extraordinary. I think that in ordinary circumstances I would be in a blue funk, but somehow or other we don’t even think about it.”