BOMBERS OVER OSLO

Southland Times, Issue 24861, 29 September 1942, Page 5

BOMBERS OVER OSLO

Gestapo Headquarters Hit

LONDON, September 27. “Quisling and I had an appointment in the same town,” said Squadron Leader G. Parry, D.F.C. and bar, leader of the flight of “Mosquitoes which raided Oslo. After flying over a calm sea and skimming up hills and down valleys the flight arrived in time for the assignation. “From around a hill we came down on Oslo, lying in a hollow at the. end of the fiord and looking very white in the sunshine against the dark green of the fir trees,” said Squadron Leader Parry. “The people stood in the streets. They didn’t run from us. In formation we made for the Gestapo headquarters, tall buildings in three blocks with a dome above the middle block. We made for the dome, still flying in formation. I saw the swastika flying on top before I bombed. We were in the leading aircraft and hadn’t seen the German fighters who were already after us on the bombing run, but the crews behind me had. Still they all opened their bomb-doors and kept straight on their target One of our formation was hit, but he kept on, too. He was the one who did not return. “We bombed at nine minutes to four. One of the observers told me he saw all our load go through. He watched tiles flying up and thought it was caused by the bombs exploding instantly, butit was only the shock of the impact. I wish we had been down below to watch.

“As we evaded the enemy planes on the way back to England we saw at intervals a brown pillar of smoke running from the Gestapo headquarters 35 miles away. When we could not see the buildings of Oslo any more we could still see the smoke.”