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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0067.PDF
JANUARY 9TH, 1941. War in The The Second Fire of London : Bombs on Eire : •Heavy Raid on Bremen THE second great fire of Londonbroke forth on the night ofSunday, December 29, 1940. Like the calamity in the reign of King Charles II, it was confined to the City of London—Greater London as we know it did not exist in the 17th cen- tury, and Charing was a village separ- ated by open country from the City of London. The first great fire was rtu accident; the recent one was the ^work of the modern Hun. The night's work marked a change of policy on the part of the Germans, in that the damage was wrought by great numbers of incendiary bombs. High explosive bombs might have been dropped later had not a change in weather stopped the raiding before midnight—of that we cannot be sure—but for five and a half hours a regular pro- cession of bombers dropped fire-bombs without ceasing on the City. The result was the destruction of the famous Guildhall, seven of Wren's churches, and many other build- ings, some of them of importance to the civil life of London. The loss of life was not heavy, and the firemen and the A.R.P. services worked with their usual heroism and effi- ciency to keep the destruction within limits. St. Paul's Cathedral was saved, though at one time it seemed menaced by the ring of flames. The loss of historic and beautiful buildings is mourned throughout Great Britain, and is equally deplored by all the world which still has civilised instincts ; for beauty and the .. things of the mind and soul belong in a sense to humanity, and are not mere national possessions. Such considerations do not appeal to the modern Hun. He revels in destruction, and likes to vent his spite on all who oppose him. In t'.iis case, the effect on Britain's war effort has been negligible, but for centuries after this war is over that night's work will be remembered to the shame of Hitler and the German jS'"?• It was a sequel to their doings at Warsaw and " Jjji'-otterdam. ... London spent approximately 1,180 hours—equal to 49 whole days—under alerts during 1940. The sirens sounded over 400 times during the year. 1 The Longest Night ttlTITH the turn of the year the nights are beginning to * ^ grow shorter, which tells against bombing operations. It tells less against the enemy established on aerodromes in iNorthern France than against the R.A.F., whose machines have to fly many miles before they reach their most im- portant targets. The Bomber Command has made good lise of the long nights. On the longest night of the year, when Berlin was covered in snow, our heavy bombers were over the city both early and late. The attack was remarkable for the audacity with which some of our bombers came right over the house- tops, sometimes flying at little more than 100ft. During such low-level attacks it was easy to see what damage had been done, and there is a vivid report from an aircraft which roared over a main railway station at just below 100ft. ; the pilot saw a bomb burst in the very centre oi the station. During the actual moment of the explosion the bomber had passed and the rear gunner looked back BACK TO FRONT : Italian troops emplaning on a Savoia Marchetti S.M.75. to see debris still flying in the air. The pilot then put his machine still lower and swooped down on a group of searchlights and a battery of guns; both front and rear gunners fired hundreds of rounds at point-blank range and in the brilliant moonlight they saw the searchlights and anti-aircraft crews stagger and fall. The weather seems to have improved steadily during the Jiight; soon after ten o'clock some pilots found the weather '' fairly good '' while others had their work made more diffi- cult by some ground haze, but at five o'clock in the morn- ing there was no cloud, and the moon shone brightly. The chief objectives of the night were factories, goods yards and railway stations in Berlin. Early in the night an aircraft factory was attacked; fires lit by the first bomber guided its successors, and a very satisfactory list, of fires and subsequent explosions was made by the pilots who came in over this target during a period of well over an hour. The actual Christmas festival was accompanied by bad weather, and that put a stop to night operations. Probably both sides were glad to give their airmen a rest and allow them to enjoy the season which is usually a holiday and time of rejoicing But the year was not allowed to end without further activity by the R.A.F. as well as by the Germans. On the last day of 1940 a small force of Blen- heim bombers of the Coastal Command made a series of daylight raids on Germany and the Low Countries. At intervals in the morning and in the afternoon they made sudden sorties from the clouds which hung low over the ground, and attacked objectives. One pilot described how he swooped down on a bridge near Emmerich, in the north- west of the Ruhr district. From under 500ft. he saw a stick of bombs burst right across the bridge and bombs in the centre of the stick hit the bridge fair and square. His daring attack was made from the cover of dense cloud, but even below the clouds visibility was by no means good and only from so low above the ground could the pilot have made certain of a direct hit. Another aircraft had flown through or over thick cloud all the way from its base. Over Cologne the clouds opened and gave the bomb-aimer his chance, which ne took at once and scored a direct hit on a factory. As a secondary target Haamstede aerodrome was very successfully attacked from a low level. A long stick of bombs was dropped across a building on the aerodrome, and after the bombs had exploded it was seen that half the roof had been blown away. Meanwhile two Messe.r-
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