CBS News Radio flashback: Edward R. Murrow describes bombing raid on Berlin in 1943

0:00 And welcome back to the Takeout and our latest CBS News radio tribute.

0:04 Edward Ar Muro brought listeners to the front lines of World War II.

0:09 And tonight we have his famed 1943

0:11 broadcast aboard an Allied bombing run over Berlin.

0:15 Five radio correspondents went on the mission,

0:18 but Muro was one of only two who survived.

0:21 Here's some of his report.

0:24 CBS World News now brings you a special broadcast from London.

0:28 Colombia's correspondent Edward R.

0:29 Merl was on one of the RAF bombing planes that smashed

0:32 at Berlin last night in one of the heaviest attacks of the war.

0:36 41 bombers were lost in the raid and three out of the five

0:39 correspondents who flew with the raiders failed to return for Mr.

0:43 Marorrow's story of the attack.

0:44 We take you now to London.

0:49 This is London.

0:51 Yesterday afternoon, the waiting was over.

0:53 The weather was right.

0:54 The target was to be the big city.

0:57 The crew captains walked into the briefing room, looked at the maps and charts,

1:01 and sat down with their big celluloid pads on their knees.

1:04 The atmosphere was that of a school and a church.

1:07 The weatherman gave us the weather.

1:09 The pilots were reminded that Berlin

1:10 is Germany's greatest center of war production.

1:13 The intelligence officer told us how many heavy and light act guns,

1:17 how many search lights we might expect to encounter.

1:19 By this time, we were about 30 mi from our target area in Berlin.

1:23 That 30 mi was the longest flight I have ever made.

1:28 Dead on time, Buzz the bomb reported target indicators going down.

1:35 At the same moment, the sky ahead was lit up by bright yellow flares.

1:38 Off to starboard, another kite went down in flame.

1:42 The flares were sprouting all over the sky, reds and greens and yellows,

1:46 and we were flying straight for the center of the firework.

1:49 D seemed to be standing still.

1:52 the four propellers thrashing the air, but we didn't seem to be closing in.

1:57 The cloud had cleared and off to the starboard,

2:00 a lank was caught by at least 14 search light beams.

2:03 We could see him twist and turn and finally break out,

2:07 but still the whole thing had a quality of unreality about it.

2:11 No one seemed to be shooting at us, but it was getting lighter all the time.

2:16 Suddenly, a tremendous big blob of yellow light appeared dead ahead.

2:20 Another to the right and another to the left.

2:22 We were flying straight for them.

2:24 Jock pointed out to me the dummy fires and flares to right and left,

2:29 but we kept going in.

2:30 Dead ahead, there was a whole chain of red flares looking like stop lightss.

2:36 Another lank was coned on our starboard beam.

2:39 The light seemed to be supporting it.

2:41 Again, we could see those little bubbles

2:43 of colored lead driving at it from two sides.

2:45 The German fighters were at him and then with no warning at all,

2:50 Dog was filled with an unhealthy white life.

2:54 I was standing just behind Jock and could see all the seams on the wings.

2:58 His quiet Scott's voice beat into my ears.

3:01 Steady, lads.

3:03 We've been coned.

3:04 His slender body lifted half out of the seat.

3:09 As he jammed the control column forward and to the left, we were going down.

3:14 Jacqu was wearing woolen gloves with the fingers cut off.

3:18 I could see his fingernails turn white flight as he gripped the wheel.

3:23 And then I was on my knees flat on the deck

3:27 for he had whipped the dog back into a climbing turn.

3:30 The knees should have been strong enough to support me, but they weren't.

3:34 And the stomach seemed in some danger of letting me down, too.

3:38 I picked myself up and looked out again.

3:41 It seemed that one big search light,

3:44 instead of being 20,000 ft below, was mounted right on our wing tip.

3:49 DOG was corkcrewing.

3:51 As we rolled down on the other side,

3:53 I began to see what was happening to Berlin.

3:56 The clouds were gone,

3:58 and the sticks of incendaries from the preceding waves made the place

4:01 look like a badly laidout city with the street lights on.

4:05 The small incenderies were going down like a fistful

4:09 of white rice thrown on a piece of black velvet.

4:13 As Jock hauled the dog up again, I was thrown to the other side of the cockpit.

4:18 And there below were more incenduries, glowing white and then turning red.

4:23 The cookies, the 4,000lb high explosives,

4:26 were bursting below like great sunflowers gone mad.

4:30 And then as we started down again, still held in the light,

4:34 I remembered that the dog still had one of those cookies

4:37 and a whole basket of incenderies in his belly.

4:40 And the light still held it.

4:42 And I was very frightened.