Raid on Plzeň 1943 ~ The Skoda Works ~ A Poem

April 16th – 17th 1943

Sergeant Pilot Kenneth Ernest Webb RAF VR 1315766
Pilot and Skipper of Handley Page Halifax DK165 MP-E

Webb Crew [i]

76 Squadron, Royal Air Force
RAF Linton-on-Ouse North Yorkshire

I

The instruments are dimmed

the chocks are swept aside

ground crew give that one last

cheer, goodbye and

a thumbs-up too!

We sweep the rudders

and turn on a sixpenny bit

C for Charlie straightens up

and taxis out before us

It’s our turn next

with G for George astern us

The flare arcs high in the sky

she’s up and away

Immingham receding below

and on a bearing for York Minster

the rendezvous

then turning starboard

to head over Grimsby

my heart pounds slightly

but I'm at peace with the world;

It’s a horrid tragic thing I do

but I have to do it nonetheless

My conscience is clear

but I am deeply saddened

for there is no joy in this

only fear

II

I wonder what Dad’s doing?

How the petrol is affecting his

chauffeuring?

Oh for Arthur’s guidance and cheeky laugh

Oh for Mum’s hum from the kitchen

and Mum’s laugh

Oh for Des – every older brother’s nightmare

I adore him to bits

Let’s do the checks

Okay guys – check in please

Tail gunner?

Mid Upper?

Nose gunner

Bomb aimer?

The twin towers of Lincoln

Cathedral

Will they pass me below?

If they do, we’ve succeeded

We’re coming back home

My heart misses a beat

Will I see them again?

It is dark

but up here we can see the hint of light

and we know that the shimmer from the blackness

is transformation from land to sea

Okay. Test your guns. We’re over the sea.

Watch for night fighters.

III

This is a long one

It’s calm as we cross France

But Pilsen?

Skoda?

One thousand

That’s four thousand engines

What a warning it must be to those below

A harbinger of death

But will we get back

For they’ll surely be up

And waiting for us

I've not done this before

None of us has

To bomb Berlin is bad enough

But Pilsen?

That takes the biscuit

That silly piece of paper in 1938

That silly piece of paper in 1938

“Peace in our time”

Would not have seen me flying here

If people kept their word

“Peace in our time”

that’s a joke!

Five years ago – that’s all

And here I am

flying deepest yet

into Occupied Europe

Yes. Chamberlain meant well.

But thank G-D for Churchill.

IV

What must it be like down there?

Just what are those peoples going through?

Do they really all believe in a maniac?

Are they really so deluded?

Or are there Germans like Mum and Dad

who despise the web they're caught up in?

She’s constant and trimmed

a slight yaw from the crosswind

buffeting too

V

We’re over Berdendorf Skipper

Five minutes from the border

A sense of calm despite the flak

But we’re holding well

No night fighters yet

We’ve caught them out

But they’ll up and waiting;

at least without our payload

I can get some extra speed

but will it be enough?

I don't know

We’re crossing now Skipper

We’re eight minutes to target

I can see it ahead

It’s already lit up

C for Charlie is going in

we’re following in her slipstream

The command comes through

from Number One

the lead plane;

we all release on his Bomb Aimer’s say so

The flak is very heavy now

colossal in fact

a row of staccato taps right down amidships

but we’re still holding

Bombs Gone!

Thank G-D for that!

She’s flying well but controls are stiff

Inch her round

coaxing like I’d coax a lady

with great respect and gentleness

In peace I'm going to fly an airline

Bette [1] likes the idea of that

I pull her leg I know,

but Arthur doesn’t mind

We all get on well, Pat too

Got to stay positive

Thank G-D Des got me that engagement ring

VI

Over Germany now

This is nasty

It’s vile

You can feel the evil reaching up

and clutching you

venomous, satanic

Keep calm

Hold her steady

The flak is terrifying

Crew check in please… …

An explosion

Hold it

Mitch go back and check… …

The twin towers of Lincoln just

too far away now

VII

Saint Matthew’s Church

on a Sunday morning

Cheltenham last Autumn

The Choir and harmless fun in the pew

Mum, Dad and Des over there

…and of the Holy Spirit…

Mum bows her head towards East

Amen

The Great Organ

Mendelssohn played,

defiant to a crooked cross

and played again in 1986

Vanessa my niece

at Prestbury Church

VIII

The next explosion blew

the ship apart

But I'm safe now

No more pain

It was swift, sudden

merciless, decisive

The Consecration on Saturday, 4. August 2018 at the point where the remains of the cockpit were found upon the very painstaking excavation of the crash site by Herr Erik Wieman and Herr Peter Berkel and the IG Heimat Forschung Team

and I glimpsed them too

The Host of Heaven

That’s when I knew we’d win

but others would carry the baton

not me

to the finishing line

IX

That’s my nephew

Gosh he’s fifty

chatting away in the Albert Dock

But look at that

the young people with him

German, Polish, Italian

South African, American

Russian – all of ‘em

laughing, joking, working together

Well I’ll be damned!

Our lives weren’t wasted after all

And in the end he got his wings too

even if he did turn out of wind

on a solo!!

In recognition of Sergeant Pilot Kenneth Ernest Webb RAF VR 1315766, I do of course write as his descendant Kenneth Thomas Webb, he being my Uncle.

Plzn is variously written as Plzen or Pilzen and Pilsen.

Author Note

This was a two-pronged air operation, the longest at that time, as it flew across Germany and into Czechoslovakia, its aim to take out the Skoda Works in Plzn. Two-pronged, because one stream diverted to the city of Mannheim in order to conceal from the German night defences the identity of the main target. By March 1943, German Night Defences, ground and air, were highly efficient, highly skilled and, just as we had been in 1940, as determined to protect their homeland as we, ours.

That night fifty-five aircraft were lost which at seven men per aircraft makes me wonder at the fortitude of the British People. Frankly, that fortitude is still with us regardless of what the media likes to report. But it also reminds me to think of the USAF Squadrons - the Mighty Eighth - operating from UK bases on the daylight missions that counterbalanced the RAF’s [i] night operations. The B17 Flying Fortresses and the Consolidated B 24 Liberators were formidable aircraft and each carrying ten aircrew. It was quite usual for them to lose twenty ‘heavies’ in a single operation i.e. 200 aircrew killed or wounded, most of whom would have been KIA.[ii]

I mention this because it is imperative that any work on this website relating to the RAF is done so in full conigzance of the men and women of USAAF (as it then was) [iii].

*

My own uncle went down on that one and his RCAF Logbook is now a treasured heirloom.

In the poem, ‘Mitch’ was Mitchell the mid-upper gunner (later a Warrant Officer) who was asked by my uncle to go back and check up on the rear gunner as they had taken a direct hit at that point. Just as Mitch reached the rear there was another explosion immediately below his own mid upper turret which broke the Handley Page Halifax (DK165 MP-E) in half and, miraculously, because of the tail fins, the rear came down like an autumn leaf. Mitch later reported that the rear turret had in fact gone.

When he came round he was propped up against a tree, being given a cigarette by a local German who pointed to the wreckage ‘a field or so away’ of the other half of the aircraft. [iv]

Not everyone on the ground was evil. And I think that this may have prompted my grandmother to so willingly accept the woven basket from an Italian POW sold to her on the doorstep during the War. However, this was nothing compared to what my family was to discover in 2015 when we met Frau Hedi Kraus at Lachen Speyerdorf and whose remarkable story appears on the links below.

The wonderful thing is that given both my maternal and paternal grandparents lost their sons on air operations, never once did I ever hear them criticize the Germans. We were encouraged to be open and to embrace.

*

Bette of course was the sister in law and good friend of my Uncle – the same age group – and the portrait says it all really – we weren’t going to give into tyranny. And the same is true today. I think Ken used to pull his sister-in-law’s leg a lot!!  Typical RAF VR!! (And I’m ex RAF VR so I can say that haha!!) I have also decided to release a letter written by my Aunt to my Uncle when he was unable to attend her wedding to his elder brother, and again, the leg pulling comes through. I do so, because i have many friends living in the Ruhr, and it is my way of acknowledging the hell on earth visited upon them by the Strategic Air Offensive.

*

The above is the updated text to that which appears in the first anthology published by Spiderwize in 2009 on Pages 133-139 of Idle Thoughts An Anthology of Poetry and Prose.

22 October 2022
All Rights Reserved


LIVERPOOL

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

Footnotes

[i] For ease of reference the term RAF must be read as including all of the Commonwealth Air Forces, Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Royal South African Air Force as well as the air and ground crews from the countries occupied by the Nazis. Airmen who had managed to escape from Poland, Norway, Denmark, Czechoslovakia and France were absolutely crucial, as, too, Americans who volunteered to serve with the RAF before their country had entered the war and who were not always too pleased to be posted back to USAAF Squadrons. But this was vital, as they had combat experience and expertise which needed to be passed on to the thousands of aircrew and groundcrew taking up station in Britain.
[ii] killed in action
[iii] United States Army Air Force which became the United States Air Force on 18 September 1947
[iv] This is the ‘eye-witness’ account given by Mitch to my Grandparents upon repatriation in 1945. My father (18) was also present and many times spoke of this conversation.

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There are also separate poems written regarding this, elsewhere.

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Life is good … 1941 Craig Field, Alabama, North Carolina USA Kenneth Ernest Webb RAF VR

Mrs Florence Emily ‘Bette’ Webb 1941 … Aunt Bette