Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Tuesday 1 June 1943, page 1


WUPPERTAL RAID ONE OF

HEAVIEST OF WAR

LONDON, Monday. - By the time the R.A.F. attack on Wuppertal (Prussia) was over on Saturday night, smoke from fires burning in the city had reached a height of 15,000 ft. Scores of fiercely-burning fires had merged, one pilot said, into a single, huge conflagration. The raid was one of thc heaviest of thc war, thc load of bombs dropped being well over 1500

tons.

Tho Germans did everything they could to stop the bombers. As soon as they reached the Ruhr scores of searchlights tried to black them out, heavy and light A.A. guns put up an intense barrage, and night fighters were In force. But over Wuppertal the air defences gave out. One pilot said there were only about a dozen heavy guns and one or two searchlights, and later arrivals said there was no oppo

sition at all.

Sgt. John M'Crossen was on his way to the target when his Lancas-ter was hit by a burst from a heavy shell. The starboard outer engine gave out, aud although thc Lancas ter lost 6000 ft., M.' Crossen went on and bombed the target. On the way home the Lancaster was again hit, and the port outer engine virtually put out of action. The bomb doors would not close, and the plane began to lose height.

M' Crossen ordered the crew to get ready to Jump and to jettison the guns, ammunition, armored plating, and even the rest bed.

Then, with only two engines working properly, he managed to keep the Lancaster flying at 3000 ft. He dared not go any lower and hedgehop the rest of the way across Germany; for then he would have had no margin for

his tailspin.

MORE NIGHT FIGHTERS.

The Germans put up more night fight ers than our pilots had seen for some time. The rear gunner of a Halifax shot down a twin-engined enemy air craft which attacked soon after the

bomber had turned for home. The crew saw it burning on the ground. Another Halifax rear gunner claims to have shot down a JU88. A third fighter was probably destroyed by a Stirling, whose crew saw it diving to wards the ground.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION.

J. D. Hocking, of Sydney, who went to Wuppertal, added another gruyihie description to the R.A.F.'s raid his tories. He was surprised to find there were no searchlights at Wuppertal and little flak. I do not know whether we surprised thc ground gunners, or whe ther the Germans had taken Wupper tal's guns to Essen.

"Fires were well alight when we arrived; the place seemed on fire from end to end, and smoke came rolling up to us. It must have reached a height of three miles. The smoke was mostly colored red from the fires be neath. I dropped my bombs, and was just thinking of returning home, when there was a huge explosion.

"A great mass of flames rush ing upwards was followed by smoke. We soon saw additional ex plosions. They v;ere too big to be made by any 4000 lb. bomb. The raid obviously was a successful show. The whole place must have

been left ablaze."

Hocking's story is just one of many indicating afresh what the R.A.F. means when it says a heavy force of bombers made a concentrated and suc cessful attack on the target.