Evening star., 1943-04-11

iho"as H. hehrs' of the hottest air
fighting of the past year.
His worst experience, Porter says,
was when he was caught in a stream
of flax in one of the Wilhelmshaven
raids few weeks ago and came
back with about 40 holes through
wings and fuselage and one engine
out of commission. A short time
before that he was "coned" over
Hamburg and escaped the anti
aircraft shower only by dying and
weaving down about 5000 feet from
10000 feet.
Here is how Porter described the
sensation of being "coned' in
searchlights. the most dreaded ex-
perience of bomber crews:
You are going along in total
darkness. Suddenly you are in
what seems to be broad daylight.
You are blinded and dazzled by the
lights. All around you the streams
OF flax are coming up-red, green
and yellow streams of fire which
look as if they were being spouted
from a hose"
Bursts Shoot High in Air.
Porters bomber carries the new
4,000-pound block busters. When
they hit. he says, there is a terrific
red flash like waterspout of red
water which seems to shoot hun
dreds of feet in the air." He has
seen them dropped on Hamburg,
Wilhelmshaven, Bremen and Saar-
brucken. He has been in mass raids
also over Osnabruck, Cologne and
Krefeld.
A successful raid. he says, sis
about the most beautiful sight any,
one can hope to see, but you must
go on several raids before you begin
to appreciate it."
In the same squadron with Porter
is Sergt. Gunner A. A. Tschantre,
1541 North Edgewood avenue, Arl-
ington, Va, a 1941 National Uni
versity graduate, who came back
from his eighth raid few nights
before this was written. He has
been in the Canadian Air Force IA
months and has had more than his
share of narrow escapes.
Rare Luck Saves Plane.
Probably the worst one, he says,
was over Nuremberg His plane was
caught in cone" It escaped by
a deep dive from 10000 feet. Then
just as the pilot was prepar-
ing to level off in the friendly dark
ness a second cone caught the craft.
There was not much more chance
of diving and none of the crew can
tell to this day Just how they man.
aged to weave out of the flax and
the searchlights. 1t was luck such
as could hardly be experienced
again in lifetime.
Sergt. Tschantre was in another
predicament the other night on an
Essen raid. The plane was "coned'
and caught in flax shower but
nobody was hurt and the pilot ap-
parently maneuvered the craft out
without any serious damage. But
apparently the gas tank had been
hit and considerable fuel lost be-
fore the self-sealing mechanism got
into action. Also, it appeared later,
the motor, the undercarriage and
some of the instruments had been
damaged.
The bomb load was dropped and
the plane started for home. Over
the home field it circled about
waiting for word to come down, the
gauge indicating that there was
enough gas left for another half
hour. Suddenly the gas ran out
completely and the pilot had to
land out of turn. 1t was a good
landing but in the nick of time for
the flak-damaged undercarriage
collapsed while he was taxing down
the runway.
In one of the Cologne raids Sergt.
Tschantre's ship run into such
heavy flax that it was shaken as If
caught in hurricane. The Wash
ington boy describes his trips over
Lorient as 'laZy shows"
h-CIuss Technicions
CAMP LEE, Va.-Pfcs. Karl w.
Snellenburg. husband of Mrs. Paula
Snellenburg, 315 Decatur street
NV, and Stanley S. Baitz, son of
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Baitz, 636
Princeton place NV, recently were
promoted to the grade of technicians,
fifth class, here at the Quartermas-
ter Replacement Training Center.
Yo,, Minhf Re |.