The War Illustrated, Volume 3, No. 54, Page 275, September 13, 1940.

The week of August 25-31, 1940, saw the first bombing attacks by the R.A.F. on military objectives in the Berlin area. In spite of formidable concentrations of searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, the attacks were pressed home successfully, and here we give some eye-witness stories by airmen who took part in these night raids.

Although August 25 was the first occasion since the outbreak of war on which the R.A.F. made bombing attacks in the Berlin area, many of our bomber pilots are familiar with this journey, having made it in every kind of weather during past months.

One pilot, describing the first on Berlin, which was his 25th of the war, said:

When at the "briefing" before we started the intelligence officer mentioned Berlin, everybody was pleased. After the "briefing" we went to the crew room and worked out our course and how we intended to go in. Then we had a bit of dinner. The weather was bad right from the start: as soon as we gained any height at all we ran into heavy cloud, and during the journey we caught sight of only three small gaps in the cloud.

For at least two-thirds of the way there was very heavy anti-aircraft fire, much more than usual. One might almost have thought that the Germans were expecting us. Twice I had to take violent evasive action to escape the shells.

When we arrived over Berlin there was a formidable concentration of guns and searchlights. We cruised around for half an hour before we located the target, and all the time the guns were popping off at us quite accurately. Then suddenly we saw a small gap beginning to open up in the clouds three or four miles away, and we made for it.

First of all we thought we could see a main-road junction. Then the hole in the clouds widened still more and we saw that we were right. Next we caught sight of the reflection of the moon on a lake, and these two points gave us our position. Working down the lake we got on to our target. More "Flak" (A.A. fire) and searchlights than ever started and we could not keep a steady enough course to bomb the first time. So we did a preliminary canter. Then we went away, and two or three minutes later we came back. We didn’t dare to go very far away because, having had that bit of luck in finding the place, we were afraid of losing it once more in the clouds. We went just far enough to shake off the guns and searchlights, and then came back over the target.

By this time the friendly gap had opened up just a bit more. Having dropped our bombs we turned away, dodging violently because the guns were getting warm again. We could see a large red fire burning, and then the clouds finally closed over the scene.

In another raid on Berlin, aircraft drawn from 2 squadrons made a special attack on one objective only 4 miles from the centre of the city. Every pilot in the 2 squadrons wanted to be in on the raid. "You could not have brought a seat in any of the aircraft for any amount of money," said an intelligence officer.

A young pilot officer broadcast a description of this raid. He said: We reached the Dutch coast, then we flew on across Germany towards Dummer-See. That was where we met the first serious opposition, and I decided to climb higher because of the "Flak" (A.A. fire). From this point onwards we were under continuous fire all the way to Berlin-a good 200 miles. There was hardly a break between any of the guns and searchlight concentrations. Several times the aircraft was shaken, and I could see bursts of fire immediately underneath us, and also about 50 yards off the port wing, dead on our height.

As we approached Berlin there seemed to be a semi-circle of heavy guns to the west of the city firing outwards. Once we had passed those there was very little opposition….As we approached we had seen for some time a large fire burning on the south-east outskirts of Berlin, so we went to have a look at it. We knew that somebody else from the squadron-loaded with incendiary bombs-had gone in earlier to try and set our target on fire to help the rest who were following to find it.

We flew right across the centre of Berlin. If we had been bombing indiscriminately we could have put our bombs down there, but our instructions were to bomb the target and the target only. Were warned about that in no uncertain way. As we got nearer to this fire I could make out the girders of a huge gutted building, which was blazing fiercely.

We circled round above it, than when we had satisfied ourselves that this was the target I decided to go in and attack. We flew away a bit to the east, turned round and made a dive attack. Running up on to the target we met with no anti-aircraft fire at all, so that we were able to carry out a careful attack. It was just like a bit of practice bombing-"left, right; right, right; left"—and so on.

They opened up on us when we dropped our bombs, so we got out as quickly as we could, but as soon as we got a little distance away we turned to have a look to see if we could observe any results. There were four fires burning beside the big red one which we had seen earlier. They were intensely white and they formed a long line across the target. Going back it was much the same as it was on the inward journey, except that if anything the "Flak" and searchlights were even more intense and they certainly continued for a greater distance-right back as far as the Zuider Zee.

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