low level attack sth London 20 jan1943

[Amber 4]

Regarding the "impartiality" of jabo pilots.
I was a teenager in Hastings on the South Coast before enlisting in 1944 and witnessed all the BOB activity in our neck of the woods together with several incidents in the Channel and must admit to having found it all rather exciting.
That is until a Sunday in the spring of 1943 when I was close, too close to an attack which took many lives and caused major damage in several parts of the already long suffering town including three lunchtime busy pubs.
My main impressions apart from the aftermath which I won't dwell on was the sounds of the aircraft, I only saw two (190s, apparently there were about a dozen) was the crack of the bombs and the deafness that came temporarily
My point is this, it was totally indiscriminate, many civilians died and those pilots were far to low to assess anything that could possibly be termed a legitimate target. Having said that a bomb glanced off a large seafront hotel and detonated in a nearby accomodation block housing soldiers from a Canadian regiment causing several fatalities. So maybe an Iron Cross was earned that day.
Bill