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The Night Raid

Heroes Remember

The Night Raid

Transcript
Crossing the coast, well of course, as soon as we reached our rendezvous point, we would take off from the individual airports, naturally, and converge at what they called a rendezvous point and that's when all navigation lights were turned off, so it was total darkness from there on in. Hitting the enemy coast, you would probably see a few search lights in isolated pockets of resistance that were still ongoing. As you got further inland in the occupied areas particularly, any area that might be, might be determined by the Germans to be a, a, a crucial spot would be heavily defended and there would be search lights and, of course, flack, anti-air craft, we call it ‘flack'. So, intelligence knew of most of these points, so our routes were made out so that we would avoid the most heavily defended but you could never avoid them all because there was just too many. So the thing that I recall mostly and particularly in getting close to the target, was the total amount of anti-air craft shells bursting and the cones from the search lights, the beams from the search lights, seeking out an individual air craft and then converging on that air craft, so that the air craft was caught in the cone. And of course, when that happened, you were just blinded completely because these were thousands and thousands of candle power search lights, and to be caught in that cone was just like walking down Water Street with no clothes on And you were open to all air craft, enemy air craft fighter attack because you were so obvious. So I remember the first time and most of the things that I saw, of course, were after the fact because in the rear turret, it wasn't quite the same in the mid-upper turret because you had full 360-degree rotation. But in the rear turret, you could only see where you've been, you couldn't see where you were going, you know. So, it was only in the mid-upper turret that I saw any of this and it was probably just as well because I remember the first night raid that we did that I was in the mid-upper turret and looking ahead to the target area and seeing all these beams moving around and the flack bursting in the sky. It was just, well, total destruction afar as I was concerned. How could we get through it? Virtually impossible. But we were fortunate. Would have been demoralizing if you would have had time to stop and think about it. But the point is that at that stage, we were so busy in our case, the gunners, searching the night skies and making sure that any air craft was detected prior to its giving its, starting its attack, that you saw this maybe out of the corner of your eye and it just registered very, very briefly and you had to get back to concentrating on what you were doing yourself, you know.
Description

Mr. Cole describes what it was like on a night raid with the incredible amount of exploding anti-aircraft fire and search lights. He describes the total destruction and how it seemed virtually impossible to get through.

Raymond Boyd Cole

Raymond Boyd Cole was born in Elliston on July 14, 1924. His father worked in the United States and then at a papermill in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, when Raymond Cole was one month old. Mr. Cole grew up in Newfoundland.

In 1941, Mr. Cole finished grade 11 and was 17 years old in July of that year. He wanted to be a fighter pilot so in 1942 he signed up for the air force by altering his birth certificate. He received his wings on November 12, 1943. He found out later that he was not to become a pilot, but he did become an air gunner.

Mr. Cole spent three weeks at #1 Air Gunners Ground Training School (AGGTS). He then spent six weeks at #9 Bombing and Gunnery School (BGS). Following #9 BGS he went overseas. Further training includes #30 Operation Training Unit (OTU) and then 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) where he made the conversion from twin engine aircraft to heavier, four engine aircraft with seven crew members.

Mr. Cole flew as an air gunner in over twenty operations with as much as one thousand aircraft in some. He was involved in the Normandy Campaign and many of the missions were heavy concentration bombings of the Ruhr Valley, which was a heavy industrial area.

Mr. Cole completed his flying tour (thirty operations) and went on to do three more operations afterwards. One to help his crew finish up their tour and then volunteered for another two. He worked as an orderly and as a truck driver for a while before returning to Grand Falls, after three and a half years overseas. Afterwards, he became a minister.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
03:40
Person Interviewed:
Raymond Boyd Cole
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Europe
Branch:
Air Force
Units/Ship:
166th Airborne
Rank:
Corporal
Occupation:
Air Gunner

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