EXCITING RAIDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 196, 21 July 1941, Page 2

EXCITING RAIDS

FEILDING PILOT’S EXPERIENCES. Mr and Airs H. K. Guthrie, of Feilding, have reeoived advice that their son, Pilot-Officer George E. Guthrie, is .now in the Middle Fast. PilotOfhcer Guthrie figured in numerous operational flights over Germany and France, in which he was the captain of his crew, and in a recent letter has much of interest to relate. He describes some of the operations over Brest, Cologne and Kiel. Reierring to a trip over Brest, the New Zealand airman says: “AVe How in over the target and could see the ship lying in tlie dock very plainly, so we circled, dodging the Halt (antiaircraft fire), and finally started to glide down to bomb. Just as wc were about to release the bombs the searchlights caught up and with the bombs dropped we had to put the nose down in a screaming power dive, doing nearly .‘3OO m.p.h. with the pretty red, blue and green tracer bullets mixed with heavy flak bursting ail round us. We came down t0.."300 feet, getting out of that little brush. The rear gunner reported three holes in his turret. Of a raid on Kiel be writes: “We had already been over Kiel on two nights with new bombs. They are real beauties, and when they go off what a pop and splash! These l>ombs give us great satisfaction ; they are deadly monsters. Before we left we got to work with chalk, and although I cannot tell you exactly what was written on one bomb the gist of it all was that wo wished them all the best from New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain. Wc took off in broad daylight and at no time was it really dark. We could dearly make out all the islands and hays along the coast as we crossed them. We Hew al>out waiting to see our target and botore long it came into view. At this time there were literally hundred - of searchlights about and flak in all directions, but none was actually near us. so in we went. As one bomb was released we wished it good luck. About 40 searchlights just then caught us like a cat pouncing on a mouse, and everybody was dazzled. We put the plane into a roaring dive, twisting and turning, doing everything possible to get out of it. For five minutes we twisted, turned, and dived until »< got out of the focus. Nobody bad been bit. but soon we discovered that the ‘party was not yet ended, and as we passi d over the island ol Sylt we ran into another patch of bother, but got away all right after several minutes oi the tactics described. We arrived back at our base early next morning, feeling great after we bad eaten. Ibe plane bad two gaping holes in the tail and two more up near the cockpit, one in the front t.uriet, but even though they were close, they were not close enough.” . . Iteierring to a raid over Cologne, Pilot-Officer Guthrie says they bombed with incendiaries trom JOOO.t and hau the pleasure of seeing the red glow from a ring ot fires started. “On our last trip we were caught in a terrific thunderstorm. It is the most spectacular phenomena one could wish to see. Even the raindrops as they nit the wind-screen are charged with c ectricity and burst with a Hash, while lightning runs over the machine and plays a tune on the machine-guns, jumping from one to another. We didn’t get to our target that night, but bombed an aerodrome instead. So you see we have our tun and nave our laughs when it is all over. The letter concludes ’ te a refeien c to Flying-Officer Cam Parkcs and Mr A. Sandman, of bedding.