Bombing of Berlin

[Mike K]

Many of the RAF aircrews were kids barely out of school. I did read somewhere, somebody aged 28 volunteered for aircrew but the RAAF medical doctor said to the chap "you are too old for aircrew we prefer the younger ones " Many teenagers think they are invincible and they are generally more willing to take risks , by the time you reach late twenties you become a little wiser and more cautious, this is probably why they deliberately chose the 18 to 20 year olds for aircrew training.

The Lancaster pilot ( David Scholes ) I met in Tassie years ago spent his twenty first birthday on a flying op.

The Germans had school kids on the flak batteries passing ammunition to the gunners. The RAF were trying to start a firestorm in Berlin as they had done in Hamburg but Berlin was more spread out with wider streets. By good luck more than anything else a ball bearing factory in Berlin was hit and badly damaged, Albert Speer had a major tantrum over that.