FIRST TO DROP BOMB
LAID OVER GERMANY _ • % 11)-YEAR-OLD OBSERVER Nineteen-year-old John Oscar Smith,, tlie aircraftsman .flying observer who was the first man to drop a bomb on Germany in the present war, described in a letter to his parents his exploits in the Kiel -Canal raid, in which Fly-ing-Oificcr L* H. Edwards of Patca participated. "I uas in the loading machine of 10 which flew over the Kiel Canal, ’’ ho wrote. “We had a rare scrap, and I cpiite enjoyed it. AVe put a bomb clean through the middle of the Admiral Graf Spec, Germany’s pocket battleship.
“I am .sorry to say we spoiled all the sailors’ underpants which were hanging out on the deck. I was the first to bomb Germany in this war—when we returned we got a rousing reception, when -they heard we were the 'Kiel boys’.”
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PATM19391115.2.29
Bibliographic details
Patea Mail, 15 November 1939, Page 4
Word Count
140FIRST TO DROP BOMB Patea Mail, 15 November 1939, Page 4
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