They lost five or six planes

Heroes Remember

They lost five or six planes

Transcript

Well, often times there was a, there was fights in the air with the RAF and the Germans and warplanes and stuff, and . . . I remember, one, one time they were going to bomb the airport, Schipol, Amsterdam International . . . but only was small at that time. And it was on, on a, on a sunny afternoon, nice clear sky, and it was five o'clock in the afternoon, and there was this noise coming in from the, from the west, and all of a sudden they, they, they came. Big Lancaster bombers and the German fighters got up, and they got in between them and they shot quite a few of them down and . . . so, this, this was, was not very successful. So, a few weeks later, the same thing happened again on a cloudy day and, and, and these planes came out of the, out of the clouds, and they dropped the bombs and they ( inaudible ) back up again. And they really did a good job and at that time, it was, it was never used again. But the first time, that cost them about five or six planes. So, during the day, the Americans, they went to Germany, eh. It was a constant going day and night, 24 hours a day, they came over. The Americans flew during the day, and on a sunny day all you could see was sparkles and the, and the, the sunrays on the plane. Oh, there was planes from one end to the sky to the other as far as you could see hundreds, hundreds, hundreds at a time. It was just unbelievable. Then at night, you know, it, it started about 9:30, 10:00 o'clock. They, they came over. They came from England, and they went over to Germany. And it, it sounded like music in your ears, but we didn't know half of what was going on. But it sounded, like I said, like music in your ears. And in the early morning hours, they came back. Minus a few of course, because there was quite a few planes overnight in these bomb, bombing raids and stuff.

Description

Mr. Lammers describes bomber traffic over Holland.

Henk Lammers

Mr. Lammers was born near Amsterdam, Holland, on March 11, 1926. At the time of German occupation, he was 14 and worked on his and his neighbour’s farms. He offers numerous perspectives on life in Holland during the Second World War. In 1946, Mr. Lammers joined the Dutch Army and served a tour of duty in Dutch Indonesia, namely Sumatra and Java. Mr. Lammers now resides in Ayton, Ontario, where he has been actively involved with the Cadets.

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