The Valour and the Horror

Preparation and Run:

In the morning, their aircraft were fueled up and bombed up. More bombs usually meant a shorter flight ahead; fewer bombs meant the target was further away and the mission required more fuel. As the crews headed off to their afternoon briefing, they would try to guess what the target was. Tension built as they entered the Briefing Room.

KEN BROWN

"Well in our squadron, as you came in the back of the room, there were two curtains, staggered, so that when you passed the first one, you could see the board, and you could see the target. It was named right across the top of the board. And usually, the person would see it and if it was the Ruhr, the first remark would be, "Not again, Berlin...Holy Christ."

From the Canadian bomber bases in the North of England, it was a three hour flight to the Ruhr Valley of Germany, and three hours back. The Ruhr was the main target area because it was the heartland of German industrial might. It was also the most heavily defended, with anti-aircraft artillery, and fighters.

In the evening the crews got dressed and headed out to their aircraft - an average of 20 planes would fly from each of the British airfields. They all had to leave England at approximately the same time and return at the same time. The taxiing and take-offs all had to be accomplished in strict radio silence so that

the Germans would not detect the exact hour of departure.

For the fully loaded bombers it was a long slow climb to cruising altitude. The navigator would chart the course and soon the aircraft would rendez-vous with the other bombers dispatched from other bases on the same mission. Sometimes 900 or 1,000 bombers would head out, at the same time, to the same target. It was called... the stream. In minutes came the dreaded call on the intercom, "Enemy coast ahead." The crew braced themselves. First came the flak...anti-aircraft artillery fire. The explosions shook the plane. Then what was often the most feared obstacle...searchlights. The coast of Europe was lined with a thick band of searchlights and flak batteries...some of them radar controlled. When one light caught you dozens of other lights snapped over and trapped you in a cone.

The bombers that made it through the flak and searchlights would approach the target.. The bomb-aimer would look down through a window in the bottom of the plane, searching for the aiming point. He had to be careful before releasing the bombs to avoid hitting any other planes below him.

As morning approached the bomber stream returned to England. The bombers were still vulnerable to attack by German fighter squadrons all the way home. Many planes were badly shot up and limping back. Many had dead or badly wounded aircrew on board. On one such plane was Canadian Jim Moffat.