Thousand Bomber Raids

During the War I was in my early teens and there are so many vivid memories, but the one that really stands out concerns what were called the “Thousand Bomber Raids”. There were any number of these and whether there were a thousand planes or not is unimportant - there were certainly many, many hundreds, mostly Lancasters.

I lived in a seaside town in Lincolnshire. Looking at a map of the UK, Skegness will be seen as the town on the easternmost point of land above the Wash. It is very prominent and so, from the air, made an easily identifiable landmark.

Lincolnshire was home to most of the bomber squadrons with their airfields spread over much of the county. This prominent point of the coast was used as the rendezvous for the aircraft at the start of each of these raids.

Early in the evening a Lancaster would arrive and begin the circle the town, soon to be joined by another then another and another. We knew then that a ‘big one’ was about to happen. Planes kept arriving, the swinging flight of planes became a squadron and, as more arrived, became mass, a multitude, like an enormous wheel in the sky. Five, six, maybe seven or even eight hundred planes, all circling our small town with an unbelievable noise. Four powerful engines on each plane; imagine three thousand Ferrari’s racing round above your head, a nightmare vision of a huge swarm of very angry bees buzzing around. The whole sky darkened with a black mass of bombers, bellies pregnant with deadly explosive power, soon to be dropped on some strategic enemy target.

Then, when all his host of warriors had assembled, the leader would break away in the direction of Germany and the others would stream after him. In minutes there was silence.

It was the most awesome sight to be imagined, and one that still lingers in the mind’s eye, sixty years later.

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