U.S. flyers in Britain related grim eyewitness accounts of the latest Nazi "secret weapon," the plane-fired rocket. During Oct. 14th's Fortress smash at the Schweinfurt ball-bearing works, Nazi fighters, armed with the new projectiles, soared to the attack in "layers" of 60 planes each. Said Colonel Budd J. Peaslee, returned co-pilot of one of the Forts: "I saw plenty of rockets. I thought that none of us was going to get back!"
Each of the twin-engined enemy fighters seemed to carry four rocket-guns which were fired at a 2,000-yd. range, well beyond the effective range of the bomber's heavy machine guns. Peaslee added: "For the first 200 yards the rockets left a trail of smoke and appeared to be gaining momentum. When they exploded, they were twice as big as any flak, and I've seen plenty of flak!"
Peaslee's ship reached home peppered with rocket fragments. Sixty other Forts had plunged earthward.
Change of View
Flak got five R.A.F. Wellingtons over Berlin the night of Nov. 14, three years ago, and a pilot parachuted into the Teltow Canal near Tempelhof Airport. Middle-aged civilian wardens fished him out, escorted him to a police station. The police gave him hot Ersatzkaffee. The prisoner made a face and everyone laughed.
In Sweden last week Staff Sergeant Benny Spring, 22, of Denver, an exchanged prisoner of war (see page 32), had a different story to tell. Benny was a gunner in a wounded Flying Fortress and had to bail out near Hamburg last July. He landed "almost in the arms" of three German soldiers, was herded with seven other Americans into a box car, trundled to Lüneburg. At a way station an angry crowd gathered, threw rocks, splashed hot coffee on the flyers, shouted "Schwein," worked up a lynching temper. The guards motioned to the prisoners to follow, started dodging through blacked-out alleys toward a police station. Another crowd blocked the way, and one or two of the soldiers offered to lend the prisoners revolvers if shooting started. It did not, but Benny was sure the civilians would have killed him if they had got the chance.
Three years had changed the German view of bombing.
Aerial Argument
Last week U.S. heavy bombers based in Britain attacked one German city in seven days. R.A.F. heavy bombers based in Britain attacked four German cities in seven nights. The Luftwaffe lightly raided London seven nights in a row. For Allied airmen in western Europe this pattern of events had some important and bitter meanings.
In the 215th week of the war, as airmen once planned it, Allied bombers should have roared over many more German cities in much greater force. By the 215th week of the war, the Luftwaffe should have been wiped from the skies.
U.S. and British airmen conducting the strategic aerial offensive from Britain take a dim—and angry— view of that disappointment. FORTUNE Editor Charles J. V. Murphy recently interviewed them, came up with a strong statement of their position for the December issue of FORTUNE :