The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

on which William Shirer was one of the journalists. He had to admit he
could see little damage, but that was hardly the point. British bombing was
annoying the Nazi High Command. More importantly, it was showing the
world that it was possible to strike back at Germany. And in the summer of
1940 that was important.
When the Führer had expressly forbidden hitting civilians, he had meant it.
Bomber crews were given their quite specific targets and were expected to
hit them, not splay bombs all over the place. Admittedly, they had far
superior navigation and bomb-aiming instruments compared with those of
the RAF, but it was still never an easy task hitting a target from a
considerable height, even with Knickebein and X-Gerät. As Hajo Herrmann
points out, ‘You had to see and recognize what it was you were trying to
bomb.’
Earlier in July, on the 2nd, his 9th Staffel was given the task of bombing
the Vickers Armstrong factory at Newcastle upon Tyne, where tanks, guns
and other war materiel was made. The works stood right on the banks of the
Tyne, close to the city centre, so accurate bombing would be a challenge.
Having been fully briefed and having studied aerial photographs, Hajo was
left to decide when to carry out the operation. With a waning half-moon and
a forecast of cloud cover along the east coast of Britain, he decided to carry
out the strike by day rather than at night. They set off from Schiphol in the
afternoon, landing at Bad Zwischenahn further north over the border in
Germany, where they refuelled; then, climbing high, they headed out over
the North Sea in a loose formation and on radio silence, beautiful sunshine
beaming down upon them.
As they approached the English coast, Hajo knew they could expect
enemy fighters at any moment. Fortunately, just as the meteorological
officer had predicted, he saw tall banks of cloud ahead. That was good; if
any fighters appeared, they could dive straight for the cover it would offer.
The cloud was spread like a carpet over the coast, then rose in layers like
giant towers. It made him think of Valhalla, the Hall of the Gods, and he
remembered what his father had told him as a boy: that it was to the sky
that people went when they died.
Suddenly, from near the top of these towering clouds, two fighters
appeared. Hajo saw the rest of his Staffel either side of him dive away, but
he waited a little longer, then dropped down into the cloud himself. On the