BERLIN BOMBED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 6

BERLIN BOMBED

LARGE FIRES STARTED One of Heaviest Raids of War GREAT DAMAGE AT HAMBURG AND KIEL (Rcc. noon). Rugby, Aug. 3. Berlin had one of its heaviest raids of the war last night. An Air Ministry communique says that aircraft of the Bomber command carried out the attack and caused large fires, many of which burned fiercely. Great damage was also caused at Hamburg, Kiel and the dock area of Cherbourg. Four of our aircraft are missing. Berlin’s winter began in earnest last night lor there were already enough hours of darkness to bring a really strong force of four and two-engined bombers over the German capital. The German radio described this heavy attack as the work of only a few isolated aircraft.

It was Hourly over the North Sea and the sky was clear over central Germany, states the Air Ministry News Service, though the moon was setting: and gave no help ■t.. our aircraft. As they approached the target the crews dropped flares and saw many landmarks and aimed the heaviest bombs at the heart of Berlin. The attack was made from all directions and as soon as the first bomb had fallen gunfire began. CIRCULAR TOUR Berlin had greatly increased the number of searchlights and the pilot of a Stirling said: “We caw searchlights when about thirty miles from Berlin. When we got nearer we reckoner there were about three hundred. We sneaked in between them and arrived over the outskirts of Berlin at 1.30 a.m. and borpbed at 1.54. In that time we had made a circular tour over most of central Berlin. There was a good number of bombers over the city at the same time as ourselves so the ground defences could not concentrate on one aircraft. “While we were Hying round we saw a lot of incendiary bombs go down in the west of the city. Our own bombs burst on the meeting point of two sets of railway lines and my rear gunner said that he could see the lines quite clearly in the light of the bomb flashes. A: we were coming away we saw one of the new bombs go off. I had never seen one before and I caught the sight of the explosion out of the corner of my eve and when I fb’st saw it 1 th ,ught it was a Hare about a thousand feet away. Then I realised it was far below on the ground. My rear-gunner called me to tell me that he had a full view of it and it was terrific.” PROMOTION CELEBRATED One of the new bombs was carried in an aircraft piloted by a Wing Commander who went to Berlin last night to ceiebrate as he put it. the conclusion of fiv months in command of a bomber squadron. A few hours alter the attack he handed over to his successor and took up his new job as Group Captain in command of the Bomber station. The captain of a t'our-engined bomber —a Flight Lieutenant who has the D.F.C.—said that had. no difficulty m finding the centre of the city. “Shells were burstin- only a few feet beneath us.” he said. “but we got through and my rear-gunner told ine that he could see clouds of black smoke coming up after our bombs had hit the mark. Our flares had lighted up the buildings at which we were aiming.” Other crews reported a fire which, “heaved like a volcano.” and “three high explosions with a deep red glow over the city wh eighty miles away.” HAMBURG FIERCELY ATTACKED Hamburg was as fiercely attacked as Berlin and great damage was done to docks, railways and industries. There were good reports of an equally heavy attack on the shipbuilding yards at Kiel. BOMBERS REWARDED In all it was a night of hard, sustained effort by the Bomber Command rewarded by the all familiar signs of widespread destruction in the three of the main centres of Germany’s strength.— 8.0. W.

| the radio: T have been hit I am going to make a forced landing in Franre. ! order the squadron to return to its i The pilots swept the vessels with ; their fire, levelled out and flew back to their base as instructed. Some ot i them reported afterward that they saw Wing Commander Straight’s aircraft j gliding down over the French coast to- ■ ward land 1 Neariy two and a half years ago ; \V>ng Commander Straight joined a I famous auxiliary fighter squadron of ! the Royal Air Force and has seen conj siderable action since the war started |ln April last year he was detached , from special duties in Norway, where Ihe won the Military Cross and was ■jpvprr lv wounded.—R O.W.