Pictures - Flying Through Flak

Heroes Remember

Pictures - Flying Through Flak

Transcript

Our pilot was a stickler, a real stickler, no chatter on the intercom no, no this or that you know. One time on the day time trip, bomber stream was ten minutes late, ten minutes late on a day time trip. We looked ahead and all the other bombers had gone pathfinder had gone and the navigator said, "Skipper, we're ten minutes late." Our skip says, "We're gonna bomb on time." Pushed the throttles forward and he left that bomber stream. We were over Hamburg all by ourselves I guess they thought we were a PFF and this picture, this picture here I've got, all of a sudden right around us was,"Brrrrrr!" all this flak. That Lancaster was shaking from the concussion, so I got my picture taken from

bomber flying through enemy fire (Flak).

picture, my camera and you can see the hole we came through. Right in this picture here you can see the hole and everything else is flak right around us. Now how we got through that, but that was the pilots fault for leaving the bomber stream, because now every, every radar is picking us up, you know, and every gun is on us. And ah, that was scary, we got home and had the picture developed and there was the hole we came through all the flak right around us. Like I said, fighters you could do something about fighters but not flak, not a thing. And what the Germans used to do was box, a box barrage they, they put a box in the sky you know. And then every gun would be fixed to fight to set to go off at, they knew your altitude so we'll say from 18 to 22,000 feet, that's where the flaks would explode. And I remember one time our pilot was a stickler, our pilot was a stickler, one time over Hamburg, day time trip, and they had this damn box barrage, didn't bother about radar, I guess just set this. And you look ahead, and you figure you'll never get through that, cause the sky was black. Anyway, we were bombing the airport in Hamburg, and somehow we drifted off to the right. And over the target, our bomb aimer was saying, "Left, left Skip, left, left!" And I looked out the port and my God, it's just black. I said, "Don't, don't, don't, go port, don't, go left!" And like I said our pilot was a stickler, boy oh boy, he was a stickler. And, I guess he looked to our port "Left, left Skip!," our bomb aimer's yelling, "Port, left, left!" "Drop your bombs where we are." but skip we're "Drop the bombs," Cause he knew if we turned port we were dead. So the bomb aimer, we don't know where the bombs, I guess they plowed some farmers field up or something but... that's what they call a box barrage and you gotta go through it. But ah, if we had of gone port we'd have been finished.

Description

Mr. Taschuk explains how he was able to take pictures while on missions. He then recalls an instance of flying through a barrage of flak, displaying a picture he took of the hole the Lancaster left in the smoke.

Neil Taschuk

Mr. Taschuk was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father, a Russian immigrant, fought for Canada in the First World War. Mr. Taschuk joined the air force along with many others from the community, and was sent overseas as soon as he had earned his wireless air gunner (WAG) wings. He was assigned to a Lancaster in Bomber Command's 434 Squadron. Given the casualty rate at the time, it was a near death sentence. Against huge odds and having experienced numerous near misses, he and the rest of his crew were one of few in bomber command who were never injured in any action, training, or other mishaps.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:44
Person Interviewed:: Neil Taschuk
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Germany
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 434 Squadron
Occupation:: Wireless Air Gunner

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Pictures - Flying Through Flak

Heroes Remember