FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2264.PDF
120 FLIGHT. AUGUST II, 1938. WITH THE "FRIENDLY" BOMBERS A Night Raid on Eastland with a Harrow : Weather Problems BALDLY stated on paper, there might appear to be a certain con siderable appearance of unreality about a bombing raid in which the machines must first fly out to sea and then attack objectives which, for the most part, are brightly lit. In actual practice such a raid can be very real indeed—particularly when the weather over parts of the country is far from perfect. Assigned, as a journalistically interested observer, to Feltwell aero drome, near Thetford, I was asked to report there at 7 p.m. to join a squadron of No. 3 (Bomber) Group which was among these in the defending forces on •the side of the mythical Westland. These defending forces consisted mainly and rather naturally of fighter squadrons, but fourteen bomber squadrons were in cluded, and the machines, for practice purposes, attacked objectives in the south of England which may be con sidered as being in enemy territory— munition factories and so forth working day and night in the interests of that other mythical country, Eastland. . Duly, at 19.20 hrs. and garbed in the usual clutter made up of a flying suit, a life-saving jacket and a parachute harness, I climbed into a Handley Page Harrow of No. 214 (B) Squadron. At ground level the heat was intense, and after a quarter-mile walk to the waiting and warmed-up machines one felt like a mobile turkish bath. However, we were due to fly for quite a long time at any altitude up to 10,000ft., and, though the Harrow has a heating system, the winter-suiting was appreciated as night fell when flying at 8,oooft. or so over the North Sea. Our orders were to fly over to Orford- ness, then eighty miles out to sea to within a short distance of the Dutch coast, back to Orfordness, and south to destroy some bully-beef factory or other in Tunbridge Wells. Thereafter we were to fly out from North Foreland, back to Tunbridge Wells again and home. In fact, the weather, as expected, showed such marked signs of deteriora tion at ground level that we were sternly ordered try wireless first to " return to base by midnight " and, later, to " return to base." However, we made the first of the two raids on Tunbridge Wells. Poor Visibility As the Harrow took off and circled Feltwell awaiting instructions to pro ceed, one could only hope that the already poor visibility would not cause difficulties later on. At 19.30 hrs. visi bility was probably a little more than a mile, but was, if anything, improving slightly. Those who had flown during the day had found things not at all to their liking. At night, and without the use of much in the way of direction-find ing facilities, such weather can be very difficult indeed. The take-off was interesting as an ex ample of the technique required in the handling of fairly big high-wing mono planes of present-day loadings. With such a type the assisting ground effect, familiar in the case of low-wing machines, is absent, and it is necessary to hold the Harrow on the ground until plenty of flying speed—as indicated by the appearance of lateral control—has been obtained. The flaps are pumped down to an angle of about fifteen degrees, and any tendency to leave the ground over irregularities is corrected before the flying " moment " arrives. Presumably when taking off from a small aerodrome it would be possible, nevertheless, to force it into the air, hanging on the auto matic slots. The Harrow is, inci dentally, very well liked for its general stability and safe slow-speed character istics. Inside, too, there is plenty of room to move about, and no reason for even the newcomer to bump his head against anything—except, perhaps, the reserve petrol tank. " Over the North Sea From Feltwell the course to Orford ness was 130 deg. M. as calculated by the navigator at his chartboard imme diately behind and below the second pilot. This leg was covered in about a quarter of an hour and, after circling the lighthouse, the Harrow was nosed out to sea in the gathering dusk on a course of 95 deg. M., which should have brought us, at the end of a calculated eighty miles, somewhere near the Dutch coast. For the most part the North Sea was covered with what appeared to be a 7/ioths layer of low cloud. It was just as well that we were not proceeding any farther than the coast, since over there was a bank of clouds extending up to perhaps 12,000ft. Our height fJver the sea varied between 8,000 and 10,oooft. according to rules. Orfordness, on the return journey, was hit spot-on—which is not so bad after 180 miles flying. So far there had been sufficient daylight left to make use of what there was of a natural horizon, but as we neared the English coast again on what was virtually a reciprocal course the cockpit flood lights were adjusted and the navigation lights turned on. For purposes of dis tinction the Westland bombers kept their lights on all the time, while those of the enemy were only switched on when attacked or when other machines were seen in the vicinity. Since our lights were on and we were, consequently, counted as friends, we had no chance of judging the efficiency or otherwise of the positively enormous number of search light units to the south-east and north east of London. As soon as these units saw our lights they lost all interest in us. At Orfordness again it was almost dark and the real work was started. Along the Thames Estuary there was little or no sign of any blacking-out, and even without a map it was possible to pick out practically all the towns on the direct line to Tunbridge Wells. Chatham and Rochester, in particular, showed up "magnificently, though it would have been a very different matter in real war conditions. The moon was, for the most part, cloud-obscured, and it was only just possible, without the indication given by the relative placings of the different towns, to distinguish the out line of the Thames Estuary. Tunbridge Wells itself appeared as a brilliantly lighted cross set within a cluster of star- dust. Our objective—the camera obscura which took the place of the bully-beef factory—was apparently lying approxi mately at the intersection of the cross. Once again, it would have been a very different matter indeed if the town, as, in fact, I was led to expect, had been blacked out. After circling around waiting for our correct time of arrival a signal pyrotechnic bomb was burst (or so it sounded and smelt), and, in due course, our recognition lights flashed and the bomb or bombs duly dropped. For this purpose a Sashalite is fired, and the accuracy or otherwise is calculated by the staff in the camera obscura for a standard wind speed; our height had already been wirelessed for use by the Bomber Command- who were in charge of the targets. The residents in Tun- bridge Wells remained alive and well. In the meantime we had received at least two wireless messages demanding that we should be back at our base by midnight, and now another message was received in cryptic but unmistakable terms, "Return to base." No mention of a time. Obviously, the conditions at Feltwell and in that area were deteriorat ing rapidly. In the London district visibility could not have been better, and from Tilbury or thereabouts it was possible to distinguish the neon beacon at Croydon aerodrome. All of which was comforting enough. If both Feltwell and Mildenhall had turned out to be hopeless it would still have been possible to return to the London area and to have made a landing at, say, North Weald. The flashing beacon at this aerodrome was, as it happened, the last recognisable landmark before the town of Newmarket was seen, a mile or so to starboard, with the lights somewhat dimmed by the mist. Luckily we were almost directly on oui track, otherwise neither Newmarket nor the beacon at Mildenhall might have been picked up. Some idea of war-time conditions was obtained during the com paratively short flight—at a cruising speed of 160 m.p.h.—between North Weald and Newmarket. At times nothing whatever could be seen except an occasional and fitful searchlight or car headlight beam. Night raiding in true conditions is not perhaps the simple and one-sided affair which is so often imagined by the general public. My sympathies are with the bomber crews. Incidentally, the Harrow appeared to have only one altimeter on the dash board, which seems to be rather odd— even the best instruments fail occa sionally. A minute or two after the Mildenhall beacon had been seen and its automatic message translated, the beacon at Feltwell appeared with the lighted tee of the flare path. Our recognition light was flashed, we received the green light giving us permission to land, and we glided or motored down through the haze while the pilot pumped the flaps down and turned to bring the machine into line with the runway. Navigational Aids We were not back too early. Within a few minutes it started to rain and half an hour later the cdnditions were quite a lot worse. In due course Mildenhall, at least, as the area centre, will be equipped with ultra-short-wave blind- approach beacons, and the weather development question will then be not quite so acute. From the point of view of a civilian who is interested primarily in air transport developments when- similar problems are experienced, it is difficult to see why, in emergencies, more use is not made of straightforward direction-finding facilities. Those who have knowledge of such matters general!y agree that, in the present technical cir cumstances, there is .,ct a great deal to choose, in accuracy and safety, between the Lorenz and the " ZZ " systems. The latter demands time for its operation and the Service aerodromes are dealing with squadrons and not with single_aero planes, but even so it should still be possible to make good use of medium wave bearings. H. A. '
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
