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KÜSTER*: It all depends. There are two sorts of war-flight. First of all there are those pirate raids in which factories engaged in war industries and so on are attacked.

BIEBER: But always by single aircraft?

KÜSTER: Yes. And then there are these nuisance raids when it doesn’t matter a damn whether you smash up a fishing village or a small town or something else of the sort. You are given some target or other: “You will attack such-and-such a town.” And if you don’t get it, you just drop your bombs somewhere else.

BIEBER: Do you feel that these pirate raids and nuisance raids are worth while?

KÜSTER: The pirate raids are. We made ours on NORWICH; it was great fun.

BIEBER: Do you mean you simply smashed up a town?

KÜSTER: Yes. Actually we were to have attacked a certain factory, but…

BIEBER: Are you told exactly which factories—?

KÜSTER: Yes.

BIEBER: What is there at NORWICH?

KÜSTER: There is an aircraft component parts factory there.

BIEBER: Oh, that was what you were supposed to attack?

KÜSTER: Yes. We had flown over and all at once it began to rain; you could only see about 200 metres. Suddenly we were over the main railway station at NORWICH; it was too late; we should have turned off to the left somewhat sooner. As it was we should have had to bank steeply at an angle of 30º to 95º. There was no point in it, they would have known what we were after. So we flew straight on; the first thing I saw was a funny sort of factory building and I released my bombs. The first bomb fell in that building and the others in the factory. That was in the morning at about 3 o’clock to 8-30.

BIEBER: Why didn’t you drop your bombs on the station?

KÜSTER: We saw the station too late. We flew in from the east and the station is right at the approach to the town. We didn’t fire on the people at the station; there wouldn’t have been any point in it until we had got rid of our bombs. But afterwards we shot up the town; we fired at everything that was there, at cows and horses, it didn’t matter what. We fired at the trams and everything; it’s great fun. There was no A.A. there.

BIEBER: What happens, are you told about a target like that the day before?

KÜSTER: The actual target is not announced beforehand at all. Everyone plans in advance what he is going to attack; whatever appeals to him. It’s left to the crew. And then when the weather is favourable in a given district, each crew is asked: “Have you any particular target?”⁹⁸