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"Five fighters to port above." reported the wireless operator calmly. "Dammit," the pilot said, but did not get agitated. We kept on flying towards our target. Staring before us we tried to locate the airfield amidst the ragged clouds.' "There, the field, below us." ......
"The target at last - the fighters were beginning to be a real nuisance. The time had come now. I did not give a single Pfennig for the life of those below - drop the HEs, away with the blessing! The aircraft went into a dive, speed rapidly building up, and the wind roared and howled around us. The hangars grew and grew. They were still standing. The AA guns were firing away at us, but they were too late.
'A jolt - the bombs were free, the steel bodies out whistling down. Below all hell was let loose. Like an inferno, steel hit steel, and stones. Bomb upon bomb exploded, destroying and tearing apart what they hit. Hangar walls and roofs crumpled like tin sheets, pieces flying through the air. Aircraft were shattered by a hail of splinters. Barracks tumbled down, enormous smoke and dust clouds rose like mushrooms. Here and there explosions and flames shot up. The airfield and the hangars were already badly hit but bombs kept falling from the bombers that followed us, kept raining down in a horrible shower. Fire from exploding ammunition burst upwards like torches. The English AA artillery had been eliminated, their firing positions turned into craters.
"The sun shone into our cabin. The enemy fighters had been got rid of. Below us lay the wide sea. How beautiful the Earth can be. Hands loosened their grip on the machine guns. What happened just a few minutes ago lay behind us and we relaxed. The engines were running evenly, we were flying home. The airfield didn't exist any more; that was the result." ...
Oberleutnant Kratz who wrote the above report (from which the extract is taken) had joined the Reichswehr in 1934 and had transferred to the Luftwaffe the following year. In 1937 he had been trained in blind flying, while on Lufthansa routes, as did so many Luftwaffe pilots at that time. It was a perfect camouflage. Thirty-nine years after writing the report, he had become a dentist in Bad Salzuflen and he remembered: 'I wrote the report for my own entertainment, but it got in front of Oblt Loebel who gave it to a Kriegsberichter. From there it found its way into the Jahrbuch of the Luftwaffe. Today I find it too emphatic and bombastic. But then those times were filled with heroism, the call of duty and big words.
Having read what I believe to be the whole report and in view of the heavy losses incurred by KG30 on this day, I find it surprising that no mention is made of German casualties in it whatsoever.
A Heinkel He 111H from 1/KG26, shot down during a sortie to attack Middlesbrough, crashed into the sea at 13.45 off Druridge Bay / Hemscott Hill, four German airmen brought ashore at Amble, part of enemy aircraft found near Clifton railway crossing. The aircraft was lost.
Five Heinkel He 111Hs from 8/KG26 were lost off the North-East coast during a sortie to Dishforth airfield. All of the crews were listed as killed or missing, and the aircraft lost. They were all presumed to have been shot down by RAF fighters.
A 6th Heinkel He 111H from 8/KG26 was also shot down by the RAF and crashed into the North Sea. One crewman was killed, the rest of the crew were rescued by a German Naval vessel including an injured man.
A 7th Heinkel He 111H from 8/KG26 was shot down by fighters on a sortie to bomb Dishforth aerodrome. It crashed into the sea, at 14.00, 30 miles off Middlesbrough. The crew was captured unhurt.
Two Junkers Ju 88Cs from I/KG30 failed to return from a mission to bomb Driffield aerodrome, one of them was intercepted and shot down at 13.30. Nothing is known about the attack on the other. The crews and aircraft listed as lost.
A Junkers Ju 88A from 3/KG30 was shot down whilst on a sortie over Flamborough Head , it crash-landed at 13.25 at Hamilton Hill Farm, Barmston, near Bridlington. The crew were captured unhurt. The aircraft a write-off.
A Junkers Ju 88 from 4/KG30 was shot down whilst on a sortie to bomb Driffield aerodrome, It crashed and burnt out at 13.30 at Hunmanby near Filey. The crew were all killed. The aircraft a write-off.
Of three Junkers Ju 88s of III/KG30, one was shot down and crashed into the sea, the four man NCO crew killed and the aircraft lost - the second crash landed in Holland with one crewman injured and the aircraft damaged but repairable - the third crashed on landing at Aalborg-West following operations over the east coast of England and an attack by RAF fighters. The crew were unhurt but the aircraft was 75% damaged.
A Junkers Ju 88 from 7/KG30 was shot down whilst on a mission to bomb Driffield aerodrome, it force landed near Hornby at 13.30. One crewman was killed, the other three were captured. The aircraft was a write-off.
Another Junkers Ju 88 from 7/KG30, briefed to attack the airfield at Driffield was shot down by RAF fighters. One of the crewmen listed as killed and the other three listed as missing. The aircraft was a write-off.
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