WEATHER DEFIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21607, 9 January 1945, Page 4

WEATHER DEFIED

GRIM SPITFIRES V-2 SITEsTtRAFED TERRIFIC SNOWSTORM RUGBY, Jan. 7. Spitfires of the R.A.F. Fighter Command flow through blinding snowstorms in the Netherlands to-day to maintain attacks upon V2 sites. The weather was so severe that they landed back at their home bases with their guns and air frames encrusted' with solid ice. A formation of aircraft led by Flight-Lieutenant T. C. Rigler, D.F.M., a battle,of Britain veteran and leader of many recent V-site assaults, attacked a V-weapon installation on the outskirts of a Dutch town and later blew a rocket transport, lorry oil the road.

“I have flown 280 sorties in Spitfires in all kinds of weather but have never met conditions like those over Holland to-day,” said Flight-Lieutenant Rigler. "We ran into a terrific snowstorm which iced up our windscreen and left us Hying completely blind. We had to-climb over 12.000 feet to get above it. Fortunately we found relatively clear gaps in the cloud and sleet near our target and went down through these to strafe it. We saw strikes-on a number of long low buildings near the site, probably storage and maintenance sheds. Later we saw a long multi-wheeled lorry nearing the town and we dived through the mist to shoot it up. The crew wisely left it to its fate and we set it well alight after blowing bits off it.' When the- Spitfires returned their ground crews had to use tools to chip away the ice from the aircraft. All our aircraft returned safely.