Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 22, 2019 13:08:45 GMT 12
EVENTFUL 13TH RAID
N.Z. PILOT'S EXPERIENCE
(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, August 30. Few bomber pilots like their thirteenth raid. For most it is uneventful, but for Flight Sergeant O. H. White, of Christchurch, of the No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, it was too eventful.
Sergeant White's thirteenth raid coincided with last week's shattering attack on Berlin. The Stirling of which he is captain ran into icing conditions while on the way to Berlin, and he was forced down below the clouds while passing over a large town. The Stirling was immediately coned by searchlights and encountered. heavy flak. Sergeant White weaved out of the way, but he was now a few minutes behind schedule for Berlin. When the city came in sight it looked just one big blaze. But the majority of the bombers had passed through a four miles '"front" of searchlights, and when Sergeant White went through on his own they quickly coned him.
A burst of flak shattered the rear turret, killing the English gunner and sending, the Stirling into a screaming dive. Sergeant White ordered the crew to stand by for baling out, but at that moment the intercommunication system went out of action. The navigator and the bomb-aimer apparently thought White had ordered them to bale out, which they did.
Sergeant White jettisoned his bombs and eventually pulled out of the dive after falling 8000 feet. Without a navigator to guide him, he decided to leave Berlin as quickly as possible by the north-west route, and later arrived over a city which might have been Hamburg. Here the Stirling was again coned, and flak caused it to go into another steep dive. Sergeant White thought he would be unable to pull out, and ordered the wireless operator to bale out, but the mid-upper gunner and the engineer did not hear him which proved fortunate, as at 1500 feet the New Zealander got the Stirling under control.
Sergeant White, who is a yachtsman, continued the flight with a course "vaguely worked in his head." He stayed on a certain course until he was past the Dutch islands—where a flak ship fired on him—and then changed course. He actually arrived at his own station, where with no flaps and the undercarriage not working, he made a crash-landing.
EVENING POST, 31 AUGUST 1943
N.Z. PILOT'S EXPERIENCE
(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, August 30. Few bomber pilots like their thirteenth raid. For most it is uneventful, but for Flight Sergeant O. H. White, of Christchurch, of the No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, it was too eventful.
Sergeant White's thirteenth raid coincided with last week's shattering attack on Berlin. The Stirling of which he is captain ran into icing conditions while on the way to Berlin, and he was forced down below the clouds while passing over a large town. The Stirling was immediately coned by searchlights and encountered. heavy flak. Sergeant White weaved out of the way, but he was now a few minutes behind schedule for Berlin. When the city came in sight it looked just one big blaze. But the majority of the bombers had passed through a four miles '"front" of searchlights, and when Sergeant White went through on his own they quickly coned him.
A burst of flak shattered the rear turret, killing the English gunner and sending, the Stirling into a screaming dive. Sergeant White ordered the crew to stand by for baling out, but at that moment the intercommunication system went out of action. The navigator and the bomb-aimer apparently thought White had ordered them to bale out, which they did.
Sergeant White jettisoned his bombs and eventually pulled out of the dive after falling 8000 feet. Without a navigator to guide him, he decided to leave Berlin as quickly as possible by the north-west route, and later arrived over a city which might have been Hamburg. Here the Stirling was again coned, and flak caused it to go into another steep dive. Sergeant White thought he would be unable to pull out, and ordered the wireless operator to bale out, but the mid-upper gunner and the engineer did not hear him which proved fortunate, as at 1500 feet the New Zealander got the Stirling under control.
Sergeant White, who is a yachtsman, continued the flight with a course "vaguely worked in his head." He stayed on a certain course until he was past the Dutch islands—where a flak ship fired on him—and then changed course. He actually arrived at his own station, where with no flaps and the undercarriage not working, he made a crash-landing.
EVENING POST, 31 AUGUST 1943
