28. The Second Pinprick Raid That Trolled the Nazis and Ruined Their Special Day
Goering fumed at the interruption of his speech. Years earlier, the head of the Luftwaffe had vowed that no enemy planes would ever reach Berlin. Yet, here they were over the German capital on the Nazis’ special day, in a raid that made him look like a fool. The Nazi rallies and parades resumed after the Mosquitoes left, but it took more than an hour before Goering was finally able to resume and finish his address. Still livid, he headed off to another event at the Sportpalast – Berlin’s biggest sports arena and meeting hall – where Nazi bigwigs were scheduled to deliver more speeches later that afternoon. Hitler was absent, but he sent Joseph Goebbels, the Reichsminister of Propaganda, to speak in his stead.
Goebbels stepped up to the podium at precisely 4 PM – the precise moment when a second raid by three Mosquitoes, these from No. 139 (Jamaica) Squadron RAF, roared in at low level. Berlin’s defenders were on alert this time, and antiaircraft batteries around the city unleashed a storm of fire. The violent cacophony helped the British: their goal was to force German radio to broadcast the din in the Nazi capital. This time, the radio engineers stayed with Goebbels, who delivered his speech to the accompaniment of bomb blasts, shell bursts, and the roar of engines in the background. Neither raid that day inflicted much physical damage, but that was not their goal. They were intended as PR to demonstrate to the Germans that nowhere was safe from aerial attack, and in that, they were greatly successful.
