Harry W. Flannery was CBS correspondent in Berlin for a year from October 1940. The USA was of course still neutral at that time. Whilst on a trip to occupied Paris in November 1940, not long after the first major air raids on Birmingham, he was given the opportunity to interview a Luftwaffe bomber group commander, "Captain" Burchard Flakowski. The interview was broadcast live to the American people via shortwave radio. These are abstracts from the interview and may be of interest to someone.
Chris
Flannery: Captain Flakowski has taken part in the air war over Norway and England, in flights recently over London, Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, and Southampton.............How black is an English blackout? Can you see anything?
Captain: England is blacked out well. But one can always see something.
Flannery: That means that ordinarily you can see very little. In that case, how can you find your objectives?
Captain: We find our objectives by accurate navigation and by thorough preparation beforehand. One can always see certain landmarks - rivers and so on - and from these one can determine the definite target.
Flannery: Can you see your objectives at night? How do you know when you hit your target?
Captain: Yes, of course, you can see your objectives at night. It's easy to see the objectives if there's some blaze down there. Usually we drop flares first. In Birmingham, for instance, I saw several hundreds of goods wagons near the central station, lighted by a blaze of fire set by a previous plane. It was easy to hit this target, and my rearguard saw the goods wagons thrown about in all directions.............
Flannery: How about mass attacks? How many planes did you use over Coventry?
Captain: Well, the German Command said five hundred.
Flannery: How many were used over Birmingham, Bristol, and the other cities recently attacked?
Captain: About the same. Just about the same.
Flannery: How much damage would you estimate was done in Coventry, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton?
Captain: My opinion is that these cities attacked must be almost - as far as the military objectives are concerned - destroyed. For instance, I flew over Birmingham the morning after the bombing. I could see that at least the east side - where several big factories are - was all on fire. And I saw the station burning, too. You could see the blaze for about a hundred miles away.
(Source: "Assignment to Berlin" by Harry W. Flannery, Michael Joseph, London, 1942)Chris