Once the bomber stream had crossed the coast they headed inland and turned towards Hamburg. Three more Halifaxes were shot down over Schleswig-Holstein, two by fighters and one by flak. ¹²They were all on the fringes of the bomber stream and therefore more easily identified by the radar operators – but in any case it seems that Window was not having quite the same effect tonight as it had had on its previous outings. As I have already mentioned, some of the more experienced German radar operators were already learning to tell the difference between the traces left by bombers and those produced by the foil strips. Window, which

had been so effective when it was first introduced just five nights ago, was already losing its potency.

* * *

The Luftwaffe’s next victims were shot down over the target, and it was only here that some British airmen realized they were not going to have the easy ride they had been expecting. There were searchlights everywhere. And not only had the number of lights increased, the way they were being used had also vastly improved. On previous visits to the city, Window had confused the searchlights so badly that they had waved randomly across the sky, or stood perfectly still as though their operators had given up trying to find anything. Tonight, however, they swept the sky with renewed purpose, occasionally grouping together to trap British bombers within vast cones of light until they either escaped or were blasted down by the city’s defences. The flak was more accurate tonight too, claiming three British bombers in and around the target area. ¹³

But it was the fighters that posed by far the greatest risk. Freed from the constraints of the old radar-based Himmelbettsystem (whereby night fighters were kept rigidly in separate ‘boxes’ along the coast), Luftwaffe pilots were taking enthusiastically to their new, freelance role – but the greatest successes fell to Major Hajo Herrmann and his Wilde Saufighters. They were out in force over the city, and that night they came into their own, lying in wait until they spotted a bomber silhouetted against the fires, then swooping down, sometimes even venturing into the flak zone to make good their attack. Of the nine bombers that were shot down above and around Hamburg, three were hit almost simultaneously by flak and fighters, which shows how fearless this new breed of freelance fighters was. ¹⁴There was a new determination in the way the Luftwaffe were prepared to defend their city, and it looked as though it was paying off: half-way through the operation, the British had already lost far more planes than on either of their previous trips to Hamburg.

Flight Lieutenant H. C. ‘Ben’ Pexton of 35 Squadron was one of the unlucky ones. As he was beginning the bombing run his Halifax was caught by one searchlight, then several more, until the cockpit was lit up like day. He released his bombs on target, but almost immediately afterwards the plane was hit by flak and the navigator mortally wounded. Despite throwing the aeroplane around the sky Pexton could not shake off the searchlights, which simply passed him from one to another as he flew, and it was not long before a fighter came in to attack, attracted by the lights. A series of cannon shells blasted into the back of the plane, and both the rear gunner and the flight engineer were killed. As the fighter turned and came in for a second attack, Pexton’s plane was virtually defenceless. Joe Weldon, the wireless operator, tells what happened next:

It didn’t seem long before we were being hit again and, this time, he got the starboard outer engine, which was set on fire. Ben pressed the fire extinguisher but nothing happened. Then the fighter made another run and the pilot told us to bale out. ‘Better go, lads.’ Then, almost immediately, I think, he was hit because he flopped forwards.

All hell broke loose after that. The aircraft went over and must have gone into a spin. I was thrown into a heap and, when I was able to get to my feet, I found the open escape hatch above my head; it was normally in the floor. I can remember what I thought then. Bloody hell! The wife’s going to get a telegram in the morning, saying I was missing. But I didn’t think I was going to be killed; that was the last thought in my mind. There was someone else in there but I don’t know whether it was the bomb-aimer or the navigator. I went for that hatch; I didn’t hang about, I can assure you. ¹⁵

The crew member behind him was in fact the bomb-aimer, Frank Fenton, who gave him a push, then followed him out. The two were the only survivors of the attack. Their Halifax crashed a few miles outside the city they had bombed.

By now it should be obvious just how dangerous the skies over Hamburg had become. However, for one small group of bombers the situation was even worse than it was for the others. Due to a mix-up at Scampton airfield, nine Lancasters of 57 Squadron had been sent out with the wrong ‘time on target’ – while everyone else was due to have finished bombing by 0130 hours, this small group did not arrive at the target until twenty minutes later. Deprived of collective security, and brightly lit by fires so huge they could be seen for almost two hundred miles, ¹⁶this small group of planes was more vulnerable than it had ever been. The entire strength of the city’s defences was now aimed at them, and them alone.

One of the pilots, Bill McCrea, still remembers the terror that gripped him when he grasped that he and his comrades had arrived late:

The journey across and above a blazing Hamburg was one of the strangest I have ever undertaken. No one fired at us, no fighter attacked us, no searchlight was pointed in our direction. But as I turned away after dropping our bombs, I have never felt so exposed and so vulnerable. All I could do was to fix my eyes on the darkness beyond the fires and pray that we could reach that darkness before we were spotted by a fighter. Although we managed to fly clear without incident, one of our colleagues was not so lucky. I watched as a bomber just ahead and slightly below was subjected to a series of attacks from a fighter. It burst into flames and soon commenced its final fiery spiral into the earth below. ¹⁷

The bomber that went down was piloted by Flight Sergeant E. F. Allwright, one of two planes in this small group that were shot down over Hamburg. The other belonged to Pilot Officer G. A. N. Parker; it was hit by flak and crashed in the north of the city. Of the fourteen men in the two planes, only one escaped with his parachute on. The rest were casualties of an administrative bungle that had sent them out virtually unprotected.

The Luftwaffe fought the British all the way back to the coast, then followed them far out to sea, giving up only when they reached the limit of their range. On the return journey a further four RAF planes were shot down, bringing the grand total to twenty-eight – almost the same number of planes that had been lost on both previous raids put together. In return, British gunners claimed to have destroyed four fighters, with another two probably destroyed and three more damaged. ¹⁸

It had been a busy night in the skies over northern Europe, and one of which the Luftwaffe could feel justifiably proud. The German defenders, temporarily shocked into submission by the advent of Window, had not only reorganized, but had also learned an entirely new set of tactics to fight back. The general in charge of air defence, Generaloberst Weise, was so impressed with them that two days later he ordered that they be adopted across the Reich. ¹⁹The lessons the Luftwaffe learned from Hamburg had a huge effect on the way it waged war, and would gradually win it the upper hand once more in the months to come.