BOMBER IN STORM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 9 August 1941, Page 2

BOMBER IN STORM

AIRMAN’S EXPERIENCES TRIP TO BREMEN • The propellers, wing tips, guns and trailing aerial were just a mass of fire. Had they been able to see us from the ground, we would have looked like a ball of fire in the air.” Thus an Auckland airman, Sergeant Gunner W. D. Reevely, in a letter to his father, Mr. W. Reevely, 49 Ridings road, Remuera, describes his experience in a stum over the North Sea while his aircaft was on the way to take part in a bombing raid over enemy territory. Half-way across the North Sea, said Sergeant Reevely, the machine ran into a storm which they were were told was local. It was not possible to avoid the storm by climbing or flying lower. “Really,” he added, “we should have turned back, but we kept hoping that at any minute we would run out of it. Most aircraft turned back.” Describing the storm Sergeant Reevely said that frequently the flashes of lightning were so brilliant that the crew could not see for a few minutes. During one of these flashes he passed the remark that he would be “leaving them shortly.” The members of the crew cracked jokes and sang “We’re off to see the Wizard — the wonderful Wizard of Oz!" Nearly Turned Back “Things were just middling, for the wireless had gone up in smoke and our airspeed indicator had blown. All had ia conference, and we nearly turned back without dropping the bombs. I thought this a waste, so we decided, as we were nearly there, to keep going.

“Well I am glad we did, for about five minutes later we ran out of the storm, and here was everything waiting for us —searchlights and fighters—but Bremen was hot far to go. Though there was a very heavy ground haze up to about 5000 ft., we took photos and soon got rid of our bombs. As the people below had our range down to a fine art, we didn’t lose much time in getting away.”

Sergeant Reevely mentions that their experiences on that occasion were referred to in a radio broadcast, and his remark to his colleagues during the storm that he would be leaving them shortly, was introduced. Their expression after they, had dropped their load of bombs and the anti-aircraft- fire was very close—“O.K.! Take it away!” was also men tioned in the broadcast.