Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-22

might have been in his teens.
ITS almost impossible for a
snapper to see a bomber at
night, and vice versa, even In
clear moonlight. So they don't
trouble us much. It's the 'flaks'
and 'ack-acks' that give us the
most hell" c"Flak," German
word. is the British flier's argot
for light anti-aircraft fire. and
"ack-ack' a phonetic coined
from the noise made by explod-
ing high explosive shells desig-
mated heavy air artillery
But a burst" continued Lees,
"has to he within a few yards Of
ship to do any real damage.
A bomber takes an amazing
amount OF chewing up before
being put out of commission"
1.-THE searchlights bother you
most" asserted Henderson. AT
$4,000 feet they'll light up the
interior Of your plane like a sit
ting room. The worst of that Is
you can't see your target through
the glare, so we take what we
call 'evasive action - fly off
again out of the central pool and
come back at a different angle"
DEPENDS ON WEATHER
Us IL difficult TO locate a fac
tory or rail station, or other
single target once a bomber Is
over a German city,"
Depends largely on weather
conditions, said Howard. "Once
over the objective city, we orient
our maps and look for land
marks, usually a river or water.
II may take as much as an hour
and a half Of flying around be-
fore we locate the target Z.
That's the main difference be-
tween German bombers and ours.
Like that night we went over
Bernberg," added Sergeant jack
son. I'VE left England about
dusk and arrived southwest Of
Berlin after midnight. We
cruised around for a full hour,
then took three runs before
dropping our bombs - right
through the top of the plant.
You could see the place disin-
tegrate in a crumbling mass"
Day bombing is highly haz
ardous. attended by attacks from
Georman fighters and anti-aircraf'
at the same time.
BRIDGEHEAD ATTACK
"The worst time ever had"
unused Sopwith. "was the after
noon we were sent over to bomb
some bridgeheads at Maastricht,
Belgium. Thirty-six of N went
and only rs came back. We
were carrying two 25O's and IL
40s, and flying at about 1000
feet. The Flaks' were fierce and
just gnawed chunks out Of our
Kites like a mouse nibbling
cheese. But the 'snappers' were
worse. They hummed around
like hornets.
AT low elevations, like 1000
feet" said Sopwith, "a British
Blenheim bomber has equal
speed for the light fighters. built
as these are for fast flying at
higher, rarified heights. So the
favorite 'evasiNe tactic when at
tackled Is to come down low
and 'high-tail' home. or scuttle
for the nearest cloud"
HUNT FOR CLOUD
1--WE got three MES (Messer-
schmitts) on our tall one day."
observed Sergt. Roy. 80 we hus-
tied for the nearest cloud-like
hiding on a feather bed. But
one chap was smart. He got
under the cloud and waited for
us to come out on the other
side. Fortunately, our pilot saw
him In time and ducked right
back In agatha game of hide
and seek"
The hides" wont
Not all of it was hilarity anC
laughter. The boys told many =;
GrueSome tale about mates lost il
swirling flames. though most o
them, they thought. disappeared il
the North Sea. Invariably the,
added. God rest his soul"
Now little while In Canada
and soon the clarion call 10 e
homo and hack 10 the hazards o
ferrying more destruction 49, kid,
with high hope in their eyes
trapped by disaster. Lads caught
in maelStrom centuries in the
Boys of a lost genera
tom"
Tomorrow; How they fight val,
anfIv IN sfax,, th~ N.xt a. hx-A