THRILLING STORIES

Waikato Times, Volume 193, Issue 22203, 24 November 1943, Page 3

THRILLING STORIES

BERLIN WELL POUNDED GREAT VICTORY FOR FLIERS (Received Nov. 24, 1 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23 I Lancaster, Stirlings and Halifaxes all went to Berlin. After the raid all the crews were confident of the results. None had any doubt that they had won a great victory. They had beaten the night fighter squadrons, also massed batteries of antiaircraft guns which were serving as Berlin’s second line of defence. Their casualties were well below the m'o-nf or attacks on much easier targets. I i. was anther cloud cover attack : like that of four nights ago both on the outward and homeward journeys. The bombers flew hundreds of miles over an unbroken sea of cloud. Over Berlin there was an occasional gap, : through which the crews caught a glimpse of the ground—the vivid ! coloured lights of the marker bombs, j a rising pillar of black smoke, a red I patch of fire. But the bomb-aimers | were not looking for gaps. I Pathfinders were out in force and j dropped in a dense concentration an ! unbroken succession of target indicators and pyrotechnic flares from start to finish. Enemy guns were j shooting at the flares as they fell, but 1 nothing stopped the Pathfinders from ; building up an unmistakable target ; of coloured lights and keeping it thick j throughout the attack for just over j half an hour from 8 o’clock. Violent Explosion j Soon clouds began to reflect the ! glow of the fires below and even j through cloud several thousand feet ! thick the light was so bright that the u crews saw each other’s bombs as 1 they fell. i Twenty minutes after the first | bombs were dropped hundreds of i crews saw one of the most violent i explosions ever reported from a j German target. A navigator said: “Everything suddenly went all white. The brilliance stayed in the sky a long time, then coloured to a reddish glow, which went on as long as we were the target. It was like a terrific sunset. The attack was so well concentrated that while we were over Berlin we saw only one flash of a 4000-pounder outside the main target area of fires. We saw about 50 block-busters go off in that time.” Very few night fighters were over Berlin and the Germans were forced to let loose a great barrage, which once had been the main defence of the capital before modern tactics forced the enemy to use so great a i part of his air force to protect the cities. Faced Own Barrage The searchlights were blocked by clouds, and without any hope of the bombers being coned the gunners could only blaze away at all the sky oevr Berlin. There was enough heavy flak, however, to bring a shell near many of the bombers. Single night fighters which were over Berlin while the attack was on had to face their own barrage. As during last week’s attack on Berlin most of the anti-aidcraft batteries on the route were in action.