R.A.F. MEETS BAD WEATHER

Southland Times, Issue 24272, 1 November 1940, Page 5

R.A.F. MEETS BAD WEATHER

OPERATIONS OVER GERMANY OIL SUPPLY CENTRES BOMBED (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, October 30. Despite thick and severe icing conditions, extensive Royal Air Force operations were carried out over Germany last night. Berlin was also attacked. Fires were started in oil plants at Hamburg, Sterkrade and Magdeburg and shipyards and docks were bombed at Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Den Helder, Ymuiden, Flushing and Ostend. Other aircraft attacked railway communications, aerodromes, searchlight s batteries and anti-aircraft gun positions in Germany and enemy-occupied territory. Two British planes are missing. Primary objectives were not in all cases obtainable as a result of the weather and a number of attacks were diverted to alternative targets in Germany and enemy-occupied territories. German oil supply centres were the main objectives of the night’s operations and successful attacks were launched against refineries and storage plants, including those at Gelsenkirchen and at Leuna. Strongly burning fires were started in the refinery areas at Hamburg and Sterkrade. At Magdeburg an explosion from a salvo of bombs was so violent that the attacking aircraft was badly shaken. A few seconds later, the crew saw a sheet of flame leap across the targets. ATTACK ON DOCKS In attacks on the docks at Hamburg, Bremen and Wilhelmshaven, all three of which had been heavily attacked the previous night, heavy calibre bombs, followed by incendiary bombs, were seen to burst within the docks, but the ground haze and low clouds which prevailed over the greater part of north-west Germany obscured the damage. Other aircraft, unable to locate their primary targets, attacked the industrial plants’ at Leipzig and Gelsenkirchen, Krupps works at Essen and scored hits on the river bridge at Stralsund. Goods yards at Cologne, Hamburg, and Krefeld and the railway junctions at Osnabruck, Nordhausen and Hildesheim were struck by heavy calibre bombs. A bomber which attacked a canal and 1 goods yards near Munster started a fire which 10 minutes later had developed into a great blaze. The aircraft came under heavy anti-aircraft fire and suffered several hits from shell splinters in the wings and fuselage. An exciting adventure befel one British aircraft in the attack on Berlin when it became iced up as it approached the German capital. When flying at a great height the aircraft developed a flat spin, and, in order to lighten it, the pilot let go his bombs. The spin persisted and the crew were warned to get ready to abandon the aircraft. It was not until the bomber’s trailing aerial was wrenched off by contact with the ground that the pilot succeeded in getting the machine under control. ERSATZ SAUSAGE Describing his experience on his return to England the pilot said: “The crew were not at all keen on the idea of descending over Germany. My navigator, who is an Australian', told me that he did not want to have to eat ersatz sausage for breakfast for the rest of the war. He seemed quite confident that we should pull out before we hit. He pointed out afterwards how sick we should have been if we had jumped and then seen the aircraft recover and fly off without us.” The severe conditions in which last night’s raid on Berlin were carried out are graphically described by other pilots engaged. The raid was the earliest Berlin has yet experienced, the first of a small striking force of heavy bombers reaching the capital at 9 p.m. A snowstorm which hampered the airmen over the last 100 miles of Germany was raging over Berlin and made the task of target location extremely difficult. However, after dropping flares the first raiders succeeded in finding their targets, although driving snow obscured observation of the results. “The early part of the journey to Berlin was grand,” said the pilot of the first aircraft to reach Berlin. “Visibility was excellent and we could see the stars in an almost cloudless sky. Then, quite suddenly, we ran into a snowstorm which kept us company all the way to Berlin and most of the way back. Some of the fine powdery snow blew into my cockpit and lay two inches thick on the dashboard recess. To make matters worse, the „ windscreens of the two front cockpits were completely covered. Thus, we flew many miles almost blind, depending entirely upon our instruments. “We had hoped to get' clear of the snow before reaching Berlin, but, if' anything, it was worse when we arrived. Still, we managed to find the target—a large electrical works—and bombed it through the snow.” Another pilot who visited the outskirts of Berlin was less fortunate: “We ran into the same fine powdery snow, and at one time I looked like a flying snowman,” he 1 said.