“ It’s Blown Everything Up ”

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 228, 26 September 1940, Page 7

“ It’s Blown Everything Up ”

PILOT’S ACCOUNT OF BERLIN RAID (British Official Wireless.) Received Wednesday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 24. Broadcasting on Tuesday night a 21-year-old bomber pilot of the R.A.F. described his experiences in last night ’s raids in and around Berlin. He blew up part of the gasworks in the northeast district of the city and he said:

“This was my twenty-fifth raid over Germany and it was about the most successful of tne whole 25. Our squadron had been over Berlin before but I hadn *t. They sent me to Hamm instead and my crew were a bit fed up about that.

“Wo were told about five o’clock yesterday that the Berlin show was on and we knew it was going to be on a pretty, large scale. Our particular target was a large gasworks to the northeast of Berlin about four or five miles from the centre of the city. There was a railway running right alongside it, a large open space to the east and a lake about a mile to the north-east of it. ‘ ‘ Those were our -three landmarks. As we neared Berlin the cloud beneath us closed up and over tho city itself was quite clear. In fact the conditions were pretty well ideal for night bombing. The trip out was entirely without incident. We were absolutely on our course because through the gaps in the clouds we were able to pin-point ourselves on a number of places along the route. There was some gunfire round towns to the south of tho course but nobody bothered us.

“The first sign of any real activity came as we approached Berlin. We got within twenty miles of it and suddenly five Hares appeared in the sky, they being dropped by other bombers that got there before us. No sooner had that happened than up went the barrage.

“As we got nearer the number of flares increased. I counted ten but as we were coming away after the bombing there were well over twenty. We could judge roughly the shape of the city from the gunfire around the outskirts. Even before we got over Berlin tho flares made it light enough to pick out the important features. We could see some of the others bombing and to the north-east there was a small chain of fires burning. “I said to my navigator: ‘We will make for those and see what is to be seen there.’ As we approached we could see these fires were just a little south of our actual target which was the large gasworks on that side of Berlin. That was a bit of luck for us. It meant that wo were able to make our tracks in the actual run-up on the target. One usually has to make a dummy run first, but on this occasion we were able to bomb the first time with only a few minor corrections.

“At first we thought we bad missed because we saw only the normal bombing bursts. About ten seconds later, however, there were violent explosions in the centre of the stick. I think the wireless operator noticed it first. He was looking out through the astro hatch and called out: ‘lt’s a beauty! It’s blown everything up! ’ He said later that he saw a flash and then a great pillar of fire seemed to come up in the air. “All this time we had been getting a certain amount of fire from the heavj guns on the ground but nothing to worry us much, ailnough through, the cloud we saw another of our bombers caught in the searchlights and come under very heavy fire. “As we left wo could see other people bombing our fires. There were practically continuous salvoes of bombs falling in various parts of the city. It was the biggest show I had ever seen.

“The bomb aimer said he counted at least twenty fires burning. You could Still see them 35 miles away after which we ran into cloud again and the view was obscured. We wore second back to the base on the return but all the others returned within an hour or so and everyone reported he had dropped hia bombs. ’ *