DEATH MISSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24633, 14 June 1941, Page 13

DEATH MISSION

SCHARNHORST BOMBED A MEMORABLE FLIGHT, NEW ZEALANDER DECORATED (GO LONDON.' May 21. One of the, most thrilling flights of the war took place-recently when a Hampden dive-bombed the Scharnhorst in the dry dock at Brest and made a direct hit with 'an extremely heavy bomb from a height of only 1000 feet. One of the crew was Sergeant Keith I. Street (New Plymouth), who. with the pilot, received an immediate award. His D.F.M. was thus equivalent to the D.F.M. and bar. Volunteers were called for the; flight - and the pilot asked Sergeant Street if he would care to go. They had made 15 flights together, and . the New Zealander agreed immediately, Before they took off they were bidden a farewell' by the group captain, for it, was not expected that they would return. One or two in the crew left wills and letters to their parents Street did not take these precautions, as, he said, he was certain that they would get back. ; Carefully-planned Attack It was a carefully-planned attack. Other British aircraft were bombing the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau from about 11,000 feet, and, they had instructions to stop bombing five minutes at a given time to allow _ the Hampden' to dive from -3000 fsst to 1000 feet to drop one heavy bomb. Everything went to schedule. As the Hampden approached, the British airmen above could trace its flight by the flashes of the flak defences. They watched this trail when it arrived, saw the bomb explode, and then they followed its course as the German defences attacked hotly while it escaped. They did not expect;that it had got away. But the Hampden returned to England without a scratch, although at one period it flew at only 200 ft above German' gun posts.. Street shot out 17 searchlights. “ When my pilot asked me if I would care to make the trip I was very bucked because I have absolute faith in him, and apparently he has the same in me,” Street said. “I was the only New Zealander in the crew. While we were preparing to take off the other boys were wise-cracking, and saying: •Well, it’s been nice knowing you’! The group captain wished us the best of luck, for it seemed likely that we would not get back. But I knew we would, and it didn’t worry me in the slightest. “ Everything went normally after we had taken off. There was a threequarter moon, and when we were about 20 miles off the French coast we could see everything clearly. We crossed the coast at about 3000 ft, and as we flew up the narrow channel to Bi'est, where the cliffs are 150 ft high and strongly fortified, we could see the dockyards plainly in the moonlight. The Scharnhorst was silhouetted against the sky. Dive on Warship “ We got everything ready, the bomb sights adjusted and so on. The pilot asked us if we would like to put on our parachutes. I said I’d rather not, and he just said: ‘ O.K.’ He asked the navigator if he could see the target, and the navigator replied, ‘Yes,thanks, very plainly indeed.’ So in we went. “We could see the bombs that the boy£ upstairs were dropping. They made great bluey orange flashes, and it was a marvellous sieht. As we began to dive the bombing stopped. The Jerries guessed that something was up when this hrppened. and when in place of bombs they could hear the scream of our engines. Searchlights started to weave about the sky to find us.

‘A gun crew of a ship in the channel was the first to open up on us; I fired back and shut them up. I was in tne gun turret under the aircraft, and was in an ideal spot for shooting. We worked up about 360 to 400 miles per hour in the dive, and on the way down I was able to collect about 12 searchlights. It was quite simple. As soon as a light caught us I just pointed the guns down the beam and pulled both triggers. The Germans place machine and pom-pom gun crews near their searchlights and fire up the beams. So I let several gun crews have it too. ‘“While I was firing I heard the navigator say, ‘ Bomb gone.’ The pilot replied * O.K.’ I counted 10, during which time we travelled about two miles. Then there was a gigantic orange flash. It was just like a

full moon rising in a clear sky., In its light I could' see the Scharnhorst lit up.and a cloud of debris going skyhigh. Above the roar of the kite and the flak and machine guns we could hear.thaexplosion. There was a terrific din. But we knew we’d hit the ship. Held in Blaze of Searchlights “The pilot banked sharply, and we could hear him shout over the intercom ‘Yippee! My gyro’s spinning!’ The kite was held in a nlaze of searchlights and the machine gun tracer bullets and the flak were putting up a ramoow of colours. It was just Tike a huge bonfire of sparks going on all round us. “ Then the inter-com went, and we couldn’t, chat to one another any more, and it was a bit worrying for a time, because we didn’t know how everyone was getting on. I kept on firing at the searchlights, and on the way back up the channel to the sea I put: out about five more. All the time we were coming down lower, because when a bomber pulls out of a dive its tail stays down for a time, and it’s a peculiar feeling. ! “As we flew up the channel we were only about 200 feet up, and we could see gun crews on both firing at us. At. that height the glare of the searchlights lit up everything like daylight, and I was kept busy popping at crews first on one.cliff and then swinging over ,for a crack at their friends on the other cliff. When we were about halfway up the channel the holding bolt of my guns came out, and I nearly lost them over the side. VI had to make a grab for, them. I could see one gun crew firing at us, and they were getting much too close, so I held the gun and fired at them with one trigger. I saw them start running all over the place to get out of the way, and some of them crumbled up and stayed where they were. : ’ “All the time I was cussing like mad because I was really furious at the gun coming loose like that, and‘wondering what I could, use for a bolt. I thought of the pin in the navigator’s drift flame float, and grabbed it and fixed the guns up again. I went on firing, wondering how the other chaps were. Eventually we got clear to the coast jmd out over the sea, with the Jerles still shooting at us all the time. Fog Dangers , “ The wireless operator came down and tapped me on the shoulder, and we gave each other the thumbs up. I asked him to go forward to see if everyone there was O.K. A few rrinutes later he came back and said everything was all right, and I felt very bucked. We tried to fix up the inter-com, but had to give it un as a bad job. * “On the way back we got a message not to return to base, but to go on 'to another aerodrome, as fog was coming down. Actually we picked the wrong aerodrome, but this was lucky. because everyone else was diverted to it as the fog was slowly blanketing everywhere. We had only been landed about a quarter of an hour when fog blacked out the landing ground. “ When we got into the station all the crews were chatting about their trips. When they saw us they seemed surprised, and said they thought we had gone They had been flying above us as we went in, and by the flashes of, the gunfire they did not think we would get out. Incredulous Companions “ When we got back to our own station next day our boys would not believe that we had hit the Scharnhorst. but just choroused ‘Oh. yeah!’ But that did not worry us. About a week later I was told over the telephone that I had got my award, and the A.O.C. had a. chat to the pilot and myself. He said that immediate awards had been made, and that they were the equivalent of the medal and bar. Later I received messages of congratulation from Air Marshal Pierse. commander-in-chief. Bomber Command. and Mr Jordan. High Commissioner, which was rather nice." Sergeant Street has now completed 36 raids over enemy territory, or a total of 250 flying hours. After leave he will be taken off operations and posted to duties as an instructor for some time. He has taken part in raids on targets at Berlin (three times), Hamburg (twice), Bremen, Manheim, Cuxhaven, Kiel (three times), Hanover, Leipzig (twice) and on all the invasion ports.