January 1st 1945 Attack on Allied Airfields by the Luftwaffe.


It came the morning of New Year's Day 1945, everything seemed normal and streetcars were running in spite of the extreme cold. I got off the streetcar at the end of the loop just a short distance from the main gate. My eyes immediately aimed above and noticed a whole squadron of fighter aircraft swooping down on the airfield strafing everything in sight. At first I thought to myself our pilots sure had a great New Year’s Eve party. It only took a couple of seconds to realize what was happening. We were under attack by the German Luftwaffe and being strafed. I had just enough time to reach one of the buildings in front of me and headed straight for the basement for shelter. I heard exploding bombs and fifty caliber bullets hitting the building. The attack lasted about twelve minutes causing death, destruction of spitfires and injuries among the ground staff. One of our pilots was killed while trying to take off. (Incidentally the report concerning the attack was typed by myself and is shown here).

It was revealed that most allied airfields had been attacked simultaneously. Suffice to mention that the German air force suffered more severe losses compared to ours. I remember coming out of that "safe house" an extremely shaken but lucky guy to be alive. This New Year's Day 1945 will be remembered as long as I live and even today 65 years later I can see myself at that location on that day. Since landing in Normandy we were subjected to numerous "close calls", but this one was too close for comfort. I guess I can say with certainty that it was the closest that I have come to leaving this planet in all my 86 years on it.
If "D" Day was "The Longest Day" as portrayed in the Hollywood movie, these 12 minutes at Evere on January 1, 1945 felt like 12 hours. My recollection of New Year's Day is a visit to my grandfather's farm at Rockliffe Annex where the whole family met and a small orchestra was soon put together with a piano, couple of violins, guitars, even "spoons". That was New Year’s Day before the war.