A27 Air raid

Narrator: Emil Cermak, Reporter: David Cermak

The air raid took place in the spring of 1945. I was six years old then and it was a sunny day with a clear blue sky and hardly any clouds. We were living in a village called Eichberg near a town called Gmünd in those days.

Suddenly three aeroplanes appeared in the sky above Gmünd. The planes were shining in the sunlight. After some time they started throwing bombs down onto the railway station of Gmünd III. The blast was so strong that it could be felt kilometres away. Even in Eichberg some windows cracked.

The day after that air raid my mum went to the station with me to have a look at the destructions. Destroyed trains, engines and carriages were lying everywhere. Later we went to a village called Wielands, where bombs had been thrown down, too. We saw some dead persons, only covered with paper and pieces of fabric.

It was a horrible sight and it is still in my mind vividly.