Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 29, 2019 16:36:25 GMT 12
This article comes from the Evening Post published on the 4th of December 1940. The squadron referred to is No. 75 (NZ) Squadron RAF, and they were flying Vickers Wellingtons.
MOST EXPERIENCED PILOT
PILOT OFFICER NEVILLE WILLIAMS, D.F.C.
"PRETTY INTERESTING FLIGHT"
From Our Own Correspondent; LONDON, Oct. 21.
One of the most experienced pilots of the New Zealand Squadron is Pilot Officer Neville Williams (New Plymouth). He gained his D.F.C. in July for a flight which he described as "pretty interesting."
"We were ordered to attack an oil plant at Hoorst, in the Ruhr," he said. "It was a good night, and there was a fine moon, with practically no cloud. We'arrived there about midnight. The searchlights were very intense, and the anti-aircraft gunfire most accurate. We altered course and saw a lot of bombs dropping from other aircraft on the target area. There were large green flashes ringed by red, and the explosions were continuous.
"We dropped our own bombs from 5000 feet, and saw them hit the same place as the others. Then we sheered off for home. Just after midnight we got over Wessel, and we were held with searchlights for about three minutes. There must have been about 30 searchlights concentrated upon us, but there was no anti-aircraft fire, and that made me suspicious.
"I figured there must be something wrong, and I told our gunners to keep on the lookout for night fighters. The next thing we knew was that the fighters were on to us, and we discovered them by their tracer bullets whipping past us. There were three streams of them, all coming from different quarters.
"One packet hit the aircraft in the middle of the fuselage, and bullets were richocheting about the plane. My navigator. Sergeant F. Mackay, a lad from Cheshire, was grazed while he was lying full length, observing pin points.
Gunner's Running Commentary
"I started a steep dive and my rear-gunner gave us a running commentary, it was quite good fun. We heard him shout: 'Here's a fighter' And then we heard the Brrr of his machine guns. Then he yelled out: 'That's one down. Here's another!' This was followed by another Brrr, and then he called out, 'There goes another.' "The second pilot also called out that he saw one of the fighters go down in flames. A third Jerry apparently decided to sheer off.
"We got down pretty low and then set off for home. When we got back we found that the old kite was badly knocked about with bullet holes all over the place, and she looked a bit or a mess. We didn't realise that we had been so badly shot about."
It was in Williams's crew that four out of the six were awarded medals. He received the D.F.C, and Mackay who has since been promoted pilot-officer, received the D.F.M. His rear-gunner and wireless operator were also awarded the D.F.M.
German Aerodromes Bombed
Another pilot, who has recently been awarded the D.F.C., is Pilot Officer D. H McArthur (Christchurch). He declares that he doesn't know why he should have received the award. He has also taken part in a number of raids. Two of them were on aerodromes in German-occupied territory in France.
"Our target was in the Black Forest," he said. "We loaded up twice with incendiary bombs, and started some pretty good fires going. On each occasion we had a few incendiaries left, and we didn't want to waste them, so we made for the aerodromes. Altogether, I think we accounted for 10 aerodromes on the ground.
"We had a lot of fun zooming around, shooting everything up we could see The Jerries let off everything they could at us. including rifles, but just to puzzle them a bit we flew behind trees and any sort of cover that we could.
"I think we managed to give them plenty to think about. One of the aerodromes was at Lumiville and the other at Colmar.
"We made both of the attacks in bright starlight, and had no difficulty in picking out the spots we wanted. It's not frightfully difficult to see in the dark once you get used to it. Your eyes seem to get more attached to night flying. Sometimes you cant see them much when you start off, but you very soon get used to it.
"One of our latest trips was to Gelsenkirchen. We were given some oil refineries to bomb, and we managed to get our targets quite successfully. It was quite a bright night, and on the way back we ran into a night fighter which tried to intercept us. We tried to get him, too, but we lost each other, which made us boil like blazes.
"When we got near the coast to the south of the Dutch Islands, we saw an aeroplane flying over the coast. It was caught by the German search lights.
Dive on German
"We knew it was a German when it fired off the colour of the day with its Verey lights, and the searchlights immediately went out. Then it switched on its recognition lights, one top and one bottom, so we made a swoop on him and my front gunner, Sergeant J. Mylod, a lad from Shropshire, who is a very good shot, sent him down.
"A Jerry searchlight then picked us up and we were pretty low down. I knew that if we could not get out of the light we would be 'for it.' I called to the front gunner again. 'Put that light out,' and he sent a lovely stream down and put it out. Then we flew home and when we got in Mylod went to his quarters without reporting the plane he had shot down. He apparently regarded it as all in the day's work and not worth mentioning." Sergeant Mylod was awarded the D.F.M. for his part in this action.
MOST EXPERIENCED PILOT
PILOT OFFICER NEVILLE WILLIAMS, D.F.C.
"PRETTY INTERESTING FLIGHT"
From Our Own Correspondent; LONDON, Oct. 21.
One of the most experienced pilots of the New Zealand Squadron is Pilot Officer Neville Williams (New Plymouth). He gained his D.F.C. in July for a flight which he described as "pretty interesting."
"We were ordered to attack an oil plant at Hoorst, in the Ruhr," he said. "It was a good night, and there was a fine moon, with practically no cloud. We'arrived there about midnight. The searchlights were very intense, and the anti-aircraft gunfire most accurate. We altered course and saw a lot of bombs dropping from other aircraft on the target area. There were large green flashes ringed by red, and the explosions were continuous.
"We dropped our own bombs from 5000 feet, and saw them hit the same place as the others. Then we sheered off for home. Just after midnight we got over Wessel, and we were held with searchlights for about three minutes. There must have been about 30 searchlights concentrated upon us, but there was no anti-aircraft fire, and that made me suspicious.
"I figured there must be something wrong, and I told our gunners to keep on the lookout for night fighters. The next thing we knew was that the fighters were on to us, and we discovered them by their tracer bullets whipping past us. There were three streams of them, all coming from different quarters.
"One packet hit the aircraft in the middle of the fuselage, and bullets were richocheting about the plane. My navigator. Sergeant F. Mackay, a lad from Cheshire, was grazed while he was lying full length, observing pin points.
Gunner's Running Commentary
"I started a steep dive and my rear-gunner gave us a running commentary, it was quite good fun. We heard him shout: 'Here's a fighter' And then we heard the Brrr of his machine guns. Then he yelled out: 'That's one down. Here's another!' This was followed by another Brrr, and then he called out, 'There goes another.' "The second pilot also called out that he saw one of the fighters go down in flames. A third Jerry apparently decided to sheer off.
"We got down pretty low and then set off for home. When we got back we found that the old kite was badly knocked about with bullet holes all over the place, and she looked a bit or a mess. We didn't realise that we had been so badly shot about."
It was in Williams's crew that four out of the six were awarded medals. He received the D.F.C, and Mackay who has since been promoted pilot-officer, received the D.F.M. His rear-gunner and wireless operator were also awarded the D.F.M.
German Aerodromes Bombed
Another pilot, who has recently been awarded the D.F.C., is Pilot Officer D. H McArthur (Christchurch). He declares that he doesn't know why he should have received the award. He has also taken part in a number of raids. Two of them were on aerodromes in German-occupied territory in France.
"Our target was in the Black Forest," he said. "We loaded up twice with incendiary bombs, and started some pretty good fires going. On each occasion we had a few incendiaries left, and we didn't want to waste them, so we made for the aerodromes. Altogether, I think we accounted for 10 aerodromes on the ground.
"We had a lot of fun zooming around, shooting everything up we could see The Jerries let off everything they could at us. including rifles, but just to puzzle them a bit we flew behind trees and any sort of cover that we could.
"I think we managed to give them plenty to think about. One of the aerodromes was at Lumiville and the other at Colmar.
"We made both of the attacks in bright starlight, and had no difficulty in picking out the spots we wanted. It's not frightfully difficult to see in the dark once you get used to it. Your eyes seem to get more attached to night flying. Sometimes you cant see them much when you start off, but you very soon get used to it.
"One of our latest trips was to Gelsenkirchen. We were given some oil refineries to bomb, and we managed to get our targets quite successfully. It was quite a bright night, and on the way back we ran into a night fighter which tried to intercept us. We tried to get him, too, but we lost each other, which made us boil like blazes.
"When we got near the coast to the south of the Dutch Islands, we saw an aeroplane flying over the coast. It was caught by the German search lights.
Dive on German
"We knew it was a German when it fired off the colour of the day with its Verey lights, and the searchlights immediately went out. Then it switched on its recognition lights, one top and one bottom, so we made a swoop on him and my front gunner, Sergeant J. Mylod, a lad from Shropshire, who is a very good shot, sent him down.
"A Jerry searchlight then picked us up and we were pretty low down. I knew that if we could not get out of the light we would be 'for it.' I called to the front gunner again. 'Put that light out,' and he sent a lovely stream down and put it out. Then we flew home and when we got in Mylod went to his quarters without reporting the plane he had shot down. He apparently regarded it as all in the day's work and not worth mentioning." Sergeant Mylod was awarded the D.F.M. for his part in this action.
