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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1705.PDF
JUNE 13, 1940 525 WAR IN THE AIR (CONTINUED) Morane MS406 fighters firing with their20 mm. Hispano shell-guns. story is as follows. A gallant defence of the citadel of Calais was made by Allied troops and Marines, and the R.A.F. helped by dropping supplies to the gar- rison. It was late one flight when orders were re- ceived at an aerodrome in the South of England that both water and ammunition should be taken to the garrison of the citadel by air. Water was taken first. Each aircraft was loaded with two containers, which were fitted into the bomb rack. The containers, cylindrical in shape, carry each ten gallons and are fitted with parachutes that open auto- matically as soon as they are released from the aircraft. Just as dawn was breaking, two sorties, each of ten air- craft, left with the water. In 20 minutes they were approaching Calais. It could be seen that the town was in flames and the smoke pall to some extent obscured the target of the aircraft. The leading 'planes met with only light A.A. fire, but those that followed encountered heavy fire. One was lost, and most of those behind the leaders were hit several times. As they passed over the citadel, the pilots came down to as low as 50ft. to make sure of their aim. One officer, who led one of the parties of air- craft, said that he could see the smoke from the burning town for 20 miles. Later on, in mid-morning, more air- craft, accompanied this time by dive bombers who bombed the Germans while the other aircraft were carrying out their mission, dropped the small arm ammunition and hand grenades into the citadel. When the ammunition was dropped no fewer than 39 aircraft were concerned in the operation. While we are telling stories, here are some more details of the great deeds of the Defiant squadron on its first day's fighting. One of its air gunners shot down a complete formation of five enemy aircraft. The latest reports show that at least 42 enemy aircraft were destroyed by the squadron that day. The air gunner's victims were Ju.87 dive-bombers. Another of the squadron's air gunners had just shot down three Junkers, also in quick succession, when his guns jammed. Undeterred, his pilot at once proceeded to rejoin the Defiant's main formation. When the Defiants came upon the Junkers the latter were dive-bombing off a French port, and had set three small vessels on fire. The Junkers paid a big price for those ships. Their method was to dive vertically to 500 feet and then flatten out. The British pilots also dived, waited until the Germans had pulled out, and then let them have a devastating hail of machine- gun fire. At least 21 were sent down, broken up, or in flames. "The liveliest dog fight I have ever been in," was a description by one of the British pilots of the Defiants' earlier encounter with a big formation of Messer- schmitt fighters. "While it was on," he said, "we and the Messerschmitts were mixed up with between 30 and 40 JU.87S that were dive-bombing a French port. When the scrap ended we were alone, in complete possession of the air. We found we were all intact, but in this, little bit of trouble the Germans had lost nine Me 110s and fne Ju.87." On Wednesday, June 5, began the next great battle of the war. The Germans turned to the South and com- menced an assault on a front of some 120 miles against the French positions along the rivers Somme and Aisne—the so-called Weygand Line. As usual, they started by send- ing dive-bombers against the defence, and then their in- fantry advanced. Heavy tanks, which had played such a great part in making the break-through near Montmedy, were brought into action in the afternoon. The French line, organised in depth and flexible, did not give way, though some tanks forced their way through. There are some British troops with the French armies on the Somme, and also some squadrons of the R.A.F. These attacked the German columns, and we read of the army co-operation squadrons being in action. The Lysanders were not much used while the two forces confronted each other behind the Maginot and Siegfried lines, but in a more open type of warfare they were able to make use of their careful training in reconnaissance. Our bombers also attacked the rear of the enemy's army. That night (Wednesday, June 5) enemy aircraft crossed our East Coast and dropped incendiary bombs in rural districts in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and by the banks of the Thames. The object appears to have been to locate aerodromes. No one was killed, though six people were slightly injured. A few fires were caused, which did little damage. Twice lately R.A.F. machines have flown into the cables of barrage balloons. On Monday, June 3, a heavy bomber hit a cable on the East Coast and was destroyed, but one of the crew was saved. The second accident occurred to a bomber in Northumberland on the night of June 5. The pilot and navigator escaped by parachute. The bomber crashed on to a row of colliery houses and demolished one. Three civilians were killed and one or two of the crew. Day after day and night after night, while the Somme battle raged and the French Army put up a most heroic resistance against the enormous numbers that the Germans hurled against them, the R.A.F. put every ounce of energy and gallantry into their efforts to hamper the German reinforcements and destroy the oil which alone made the German movements possible. On the night of Thursday, June 6, the operations by the heavy bombers extended over many hundreds of square miles of enemy territory. Extensive Operations OIMULTANEOUS raids by strong forces were directed ^ against objectives as far apart as Hamburg to the East and the Somme-Aisne battlefront to the west. Oil storage plants and rail communications in many parts of Germany were heavily bombed for the sixth night in succession, while other sections of British raiders roved the full length of the German lines in northern France, attacking roads, rail- ways and troop columns in the enemy's back areas from the coast almost to the Ardennes. Principal objectives of the night's raids on German oil supplies were a large storage plant near Delmenhorst and a refinery south of Hamburg. Many fires were seen to break out at the refinery following a midnight attack in which about seventy high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped within the target area. A large group of oil tanks near Ghent, still burning as the result of an earlier raid, were also attacked with incendiary bombs and new fires spread rapidly. Other aircraft, concentrating on im- portant railway centres in Germany, attacked marshalling yards, junctions and main lines at a number of points. A big explosion at one end of a goods yard near Wedau caused extensive damage to loaded waggons and sidings. South of Aachen a main line was blocked by the collapse of one end of a tunnel which was repeatedly hit. (To be concluded on page 534.)
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