That the British took such a predictable route into Germany can only have helped the Luftwaffe. They were expecting the RAF to arrive at a similar point to last time, and had deployed their forces accordingly; the British decoy further south did not do much to divert their attention. With hindsight this is hardly surprising: no matter how many bundles of Window the four decoy Mosquitos dropped, the image on German radar screens could never have been as strong as that produced by the bomber stream. While there is some evidence that the Germans thought a second bomber stream was approaching from the south-west, it must have been obvious that it was simply a diversion. 8So, most of the coastal night fighters seem to have remained in the areas where they expected the British to arrive. And as soon as the route markers went down, they pounced.
The first British bomber to be shot down was probably a Halifax from 78 Squadron piloted by Sergeant R. Snape, which crashed into the sea. Six other British planes soon suffered the same fate, all but one within a few miles of the first route markers. 9The area around the Pathfinder flares had suddenly become the most dangerous part of the sky. Six other bomber crews were attacked there too, but were lucky enough to come back and tell the tale. 10Out of the forty-nine crewmen shot down, only one survived – Flight Officer A. H. Boyle parachuted out of his 158 Squadron Halifax shortly before it crashed into German countryside between Heide and Tellingstedt.
Veterans of the bomber war all agree on this fact: an attack from a night fighter came so quickly that there was little time to react, and certainly no time to feel fear. Within moments it was all over, one way or the other. An attack on one Lancaster about this time showed what might happen. Flight Sergeant E. L. Pickles of 100 Squadron was approaching the German coast when a burst of fire came from nowhere, blowing away the whole of the mid-upper turret and killing the gunner. The flight engineer, who had been dispensing Window, was also killed, and the rear gunner wounded in the face. Pickles took immediate action, and dived away fast, but without his gunners to protect him it was plain that he would have to turn back. After instructing the bomb-aimer to jettison his bombs, he turned and headed home. At no point during the attack had he seen the enemy aircraft that was attacking him; and since none of the crew warned him it seems they had been equally surprised. 11The mid-upper gunner in particular had probably died without knowing he was even in danger.
Once the bomber stream had crossed the coast they headed inland and turned towards Hamburg. Three more Halifaxes were shot down over Schleswig-Holstein, two by fighters and one by flak. 12They were all on the fringes of the bomber stream and therefore more easily identified by the radar operators – but in any case it seems that Window was not having quite the same effect tonight as it had had on its previous outings. As I have already mentioned, some of the more experienced German radar operators were already learning to tell the difference between the traces left by bombers and those produced by the foil strips. Window, which
had been so effective when it was first introduced just five nights ago, was already losing its potency.
* * *
The Luftwaffe’s next victims were shot down over the target, and it was only here that some British airmen realized they were not going to have the easy ride they had been expecting. There were searchlights everywhere. And not only had the number of lights increased, the way they were being used had also vastly improved. On previous visits to the city, Window had confused the searchlights so badly that they had waved randomly across the sky, or stood perfectly still as though their operators had given up trying to find anything. Tonight, however, they swept the sky with renewed purpose, occasionally grouping together to trap British bombers within vast cones of light until they either escaped or were blasted down by the city’s defences. The flak was more accurate tonight too, claiming three British bombers in and around the target area. 13
But it was the fighters that posed by far the greatest risk. Freed from the constraints of the old radar-based Himmelbettsystem (whereby night fighters were kept rigidly in separate ‘boxes’ along the coast), Luftwaffe pilots were taking enthusiastically to their new, freelance role – but the greatest successes fell to Major Hajo Herrmann and his Wilde Saufighters. They were out in force over the city, and that night they came into their own, lying in wait until they spotted a bomber silhouetted against the fires, then swooping down, sometimes even venturing into the flak zone to make good their attack. Of the nine bombers that were shot down above and around Hamburg, three were hit almost simultaneously by flak and fighters, which shows how fearless this new breed of freelance fighters was. 14There was a new determination in the way the Luftwaffe were prepared to defend their city, and it looked as though it was paying off: half-way through the operation, the British had already lost far more planes than on either of their previous trips to Hamburg.
Flight Lieutenant H. C. ‘Ben’ Pexton of 35 Squadron was one of the unlucky ones. As he was beginning the bombing run his Halifax was caught by one searchlight, then several more, until the cockpit was lit up like day. He released his bombs on target, but almost immediately afterwards the plane was hit by flak and the navigator mortally wounded. Despite throwing the aeroplane around the sky Pexton could not shake off the searchlights, which simply passed him from one to another as he flew, and it was not long before a fighter came in to attack, attracted by the lights. A series of cannon shells blasted into the back of the plane, and both the rear gunner and the flight engineer were killed. As the fighter turned and came in for a second attack, Pexton’s plane was virtually defenceless. Joe Weldon, the wireless operator, tells what happened next:
It didn’t seem long before we were being hit again and, this time, he got the starboard outer engine, which was set on fire. Ben pressed the fire extinguisher but nothing happened. Then the fighter made another run and the pilot told us to bale out. ‘Better go, lads.’ Then, almost immediately, I think, he was hit because he flopped forwards.
All hell broke loose after that. The aircraft went over and must have gone into a spin. I was thrown into a heap and, when I was able to get to my feet, I found the open escape hatch above my head; it was normally in the floor. I can remember what I thought then. Bloody hell! The wife’s going to get a telegram in the morning, saying I was missing. But I didn’t think I was going to be killed; that was the last thought in my mind. There was someone else in there but I don’t know whether it was the bomb-aimer or the navigator. I went for that hatch; I didn’t hang about, I can assure you. 15
The crew member behind him was in fact the bomb-aimer, Frank Fenton, who gave him a push, then followed him out. The two were the only survivors of the attack. Their Halifax crashed a few miles outside the city they had bombed.
By now it should be obvious just how dangerous the skies over Hamburg had become. However, for one small group of bombers the situation was even worse than it was for the others. Due to a mix-up at Scampton airfield, nine Lancasters of 57 Squadron had been sent out with the wrong ‘time on target’ – while everyone else was due to have finished bombing by 0130 hours, this small group did not arrive at the target until twenty minutes later. Deprived of collective security, and brightly lit by fires so huge they could be seen for almost two hundred miles, 16this small group of planes was more vulnerable than it had ever been. The entire strength of the city’s defences was now aimed at them, and them alone.
One of the pilots, Bill McCrea, still remembers the terror that gripped him when he grasped that he and his comrades had arrived late: