At HYTHE there’s an aerodrome right on the coast but there are no aircraft there. The Oberleutnant said to me one Sunday morning at ten o’clock: “Come along: we’re going to do a special job together.” We went across, each with the two 250-kilogram bombs underneath, and damn it, we ran into fog. We flew on and came out of the fog, and there was the aerodrome: and suddenly the sun came out and shone brilliantly. We saw the barrack buildings and the soldiers all sitting out on the balcony; we flew up to them, and zoom! Bang! the barracks shot into the air and the soldiers went whirling all over the place. (Laughter.) Adjoining the barracks there was a big hut, and another big house in front of it; so I thought we’d have a crack at those. Everyone was running for their lives, the hens were fluttering about, the hut caught fire—boy, did I laugh! I’ll say we gave those guys a packet.107
Another conversation explicitly focuses on the fact that air attacks were filmed—a further element in visible destruction. At the latest since the Second Gulf War, we are used to seeing targets being destroyed from the perspective of the person causing the destruction. On the nightly news, we have experienced for ourselves, in real time, how a missile strikes and obliterates a bunker. But the phenomenon began much earlier. World War II also saw, in historian Gerhard Paul’s words, “a fusion of camera and weapon.” 108
It began when cameras were mounted on the wings of fighter planes. Later home-movie cameras were integrated into the onboard weaponry so that pilots could document their kills themselves, providing the press with spectacular images. Weekly newsreels showed pictures of targets being destroyed from the perspective of pilots and marksmen, and pictures of dive-bombing attacks proved particularly popular with the viewing public:
KOCHON: In the bombers there is an automatic camera now under the cannon and the camera turns every time a shot is fired so you get a picture of every shot.
FISCHER: I had an ordinary camera which had been specially built in.
KOCHON: The camera takes a picture when you press the button and so you know whether you scored a hit or not.
FISCHER: We have them now in the wings. We now have three cameras where the cannon used to be. Once I kept my finger on the button for two seconds and the Spitfire fell to pieces. My right wing was covered with oil from the Spitfire.109
“I can tell you I’ve killed a lot of people in ENGLAND! In FOLKESTONE we had definite orders to drop our bombs among the houses. I was called in our Staffel ‘the professional sadist.’ I went for everything, a bus on the road, a passenger train at FOLKESTONE. We had orders to drop out bombs right into the towns. I fired at every cyclist.”
