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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1785.PDF
AUGUST 7TH, 1941. FLIGHT 77 THE GREAT DAYLIGHT ATTACK An Official Account of the Preparations and Execution - sT HE following account of the double attack on July 24th on the Scharnhorst and the Gneisendu was, says the Air Ministry News Service, not only the biggest daylight attack yet made by the R.A.F., but our bombers had to fly much farther from their base than the German bombers which attacked London and the South of England last autumn. They had to attack, with precision bombing, heavily armoured warships protected by six-inch armour- plating on deck, and each with 30 A.A. guns of her own. One of the battle cruisers was lying in the most heavily defended base in occupied France. Both ships were ringed with squadrons of Messerschmitts, and the entire attack was a typical example of the spirit expressed in the words of a squadron commander to his men, '' Force your way in and fight your way out." It was also a triumph of organisation. Each wave of heavy bombers had to use tactics appropriate to their type, each had to come in to the minute. Our escorting fighters were met at the exact moment of appointment and attacks hundreds of miles apart were absolutely punctual. So, too, was the arrival of successive formations over each single target. Height, method of attack, whether gliding or level, direction of entry, weight, selection and spacing of bombs—all had to be worked out and each instruction obeyed to the letter. Such a battle is fought not only after hours of intensive preparation but also after years of research. The arrival of the American Fortresses at so great a height over Brest, a greater height than has ever been reached before on an operational flight, was the achievement of experts in half a dozen sciences. At this level all the problems of high-altitude flying become acute. Doctors, aircraft designers and engineers of all kinds, in America and in England, spent many years in solving them. The supercharging of engines is a master- piece of engineering. Above all, the human frame is subjected to an extraordinary strain both from the cold and from the rarefied air. At 36,000ft. the thermometer falls to minus 56.5 degrees Centigrade, though it goes no lower beyond that height. Pressure Chamber Training The crews are given a course in pressure chambers before they begin to fly the Fortresses. In these chambers they regulate their own oxygen supply and are told to let them- selves become unconscious for a few seconds at least once, so that they may realise that it is nothing to be frightened of and so that they may become extremely "oxygen- conscious." They must learn to pay attention to every detail of their oxygen-supplying apparatus while in the aircraft. A tingling just below the knee and in the ankles is the most common sensation while climbing to a great height, and above 20,000ft. almost everyone has a stomach- ache for a short while, even though he may take as much oxygen as he needs. The gunners and any others who have to do heavy manual work give themselves more oxygen than the others; they take as much more as if they were 5,000ft. higher than the rest of the crew. Unless the stream of oxygen is adequate the arms and legs grow weak and there is no co-ordination of movement. The effect of height on the mind is not realised by the airmen themselves, and unless they are careful they may become over-confident and lose their sense of time. The crews were briefed soon after breakfast and then immediately changed into their flying kit. The men in the rear of the aircraft, where they would teel the cold more, wore special electrically heated clothing. "The air," one pilot said, "was as clear as a bell and we could pick out the French coast a good half-hour's flying time before we reached it. Over the Channel there seemed to be no horizon, and you couldn't distinguish sea from sk|r, both were perfectly blue and we seemed to be flying in a great blue ball of space. Then miles below and in the far distance I saw a sandy smudge. That was France. At first the fields beyond were vague on the horizon, but when we got over them they looked like a tiny irregular draughts- board in brown, yellow and green. In fact, France looked like our maps in the briefing room. Brest, when we got over it, was no bigger than my thumb. It was so cold that white frost was a quarter of an inch thick on the astro- hatch and we had to open the front Perspex windows; there was so much rime on them they were opaque." Down below the Fortresses a fierce battle raged and fur- ther south there was a fierce battle over La Pallice. Even while the anti-aircraft barrage from Brest was at its height a great many Messerschmitt 109s attacked the Hampdens which came in in tight formation, while the Fortresses were still overhead. The Hampdens shot down at least three of the enemy and probably one more. One Hampden and one Messerschmitt opened fire at the same moment. The Messerschmitt turned over on its back, but went on firing and hit the Hampden's wireless and its inner port tank. But the Messerschmitt went down in a steep dive and the Hampden's bullets pursued it. It tried to pull out at about 1,oooft. but never came up and hit the ground on the coast. The crew of one aircraft saw a Hampden falling towards the sea and at the very same moment a Messer- schmitt falling north of Brest and bursting into flames. Wellingtons versus Messerschmitts A little later the Wellingtons were engaged. One had to meet a fierce attack by two Me iooFs. The Wellington destroyed one and badly damaged the other. Yet another Me fell like a stone after an engagement with a Wellington, and, as it fell, our rear gunner fired 150 rounds straight into its belly. It hit the ground and exploded. In another combat a large part of the fuselage of a Wellington was set on fire. While the crew were struggling to smother the flames, the pilot's harness caught in the control column and the bomber began spinning down. The pilot, however, managed to regain control at almost sea level. The bomber landed in England, and by then so much of the fabric had been burnt away that it was almost a skeleton. Though combats seemed to follow one another in an unending succession, and though as many guns were trained on our aircraft in broad daylight as in any of the previous night attacks on Brest, nothing could check the drive and impetus of the assault. Seven direct hits with heavy armour-piercing bombs crippled the Gneisenau and immense damage was done to the dockyards at Brest. The crew of the Halifax which got a direct hit on the Scharnhorst, moored to a breakwater at La Pallice, saw a pillar of black smoke rise a thousand feet from the deck. But they, like the crews of all the other Halifax's, had to meet intense opposition, and themselves drove off two Me 109s which made a fierce attack. The rear gunner of one Halifax was wounded by A Me bullet. The wireless operator crawled to the tail turret and took the gunner's place. He had only just sat down in the turret when another Me attacked from dead astern. The wireless operator trained his guns and shot so well that the Messerschmitt dived vertically down and was lost to sight. In another Halifax both wireless operator and engineer were wounded by an enemy fighter's guns. Although the engineer had severe wounds in head and shoulder, he directed the crew in work which he had not the strength to do himself, and when the Halifax landed refused to leave it until the normal landing drill had been completed. The attack by a strong force of Blenheims on the harbour of Cherbourg must be regarded as an important part of the day's work. In the course of the attack, made against very heavy anti-aircraft fire, an important whale oil ship was hit and set on fire.
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