Word: flak
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...target, the U-boat works at Vegesack, near Bremen, was nearly lined up in the bombsight. Topside, Jack's skipper had called for readiness. Suddenly a burst of flak punched the plane on the nose. Jack Mathis was hit in the chest, side and back. The plane shuddered, went right on into the groove. Jack picked himself up, crawled in a widening path of his own blood back to the Norden bombsight, made his final adjustments with his left hand (his right was limp). At the proper moment...
Berliners know the road the big planes take from England. Far out to the westward last week, soon after the sirens sounded, they could hear the first mutter of the flak, see the pale searchlights fingering the clear sky. In its nest of lakes, canals, rivers, their city lay dark and deserted, its only voice the growing clamor of the guns...
...Mariendorf, where the big Borsig plant turns out the stuff of war, the flak had brought down a British bomber two years before-it had fallen like a fluttering, glowing leaf into an open field. Now Mariendorf's guns spoke again. High above, the bomb bays opened and the bombs dropped, arching down with a cracking noise while the watchers on the ground ran for shelter and the plant's terrified workers covered their ears...
Berlin's biggest blitz lasted only 30 minutes, but they were minutes of eternity. When the planes' singing motors had faded again into the distance, when the flak's roar had dwindled, Berliners climbed shakily from their cellars to find their city blazing in dozens of different places. Whole blocks were pulverized by some 500 tons of bombs, parts of the city paralyzed, with no gas or electricity. At week's end Berlin still was digging out its dead-the official count was 486 persons killed, 377 seriously wounded...
...like miniature meteors. The light on the instrument panel blinks rapidly as the bombs are released and you are free to begin dodging again. You have all the speed you can get and the controls are like iron. What was seconds seems hours before you are clear of the flak and can relax long enough to take stock of the damage. Your shoulder is okay, just hit by a piece of glass going two or three hundred miles an hour. Your hand looks frosted with splinters of glass sticking out. The co-pilot's all right, just...