An undated photo of a RAF bomber caught in a 'cone' of searchlights during a raid on the German city of Bremen, with 'flak' is exploding around the aircraft. Murray Maxton, who flew as a pilot with No. 460 Squadron RAAF, described what it was like to be 'coned': But they coned us over Mannheim one night—a cone is when a radar light fastens onto you which is a big blue one, and then they've got ten or so secondary searchlights that make a cone and then they shoot anti-aircraft through there. And you don't generally get out of them ... And we're up at about fifteen thousand feet and they've only got to move the searchlight about half an inch on the ground and it's about a quarter of a mile up there. So they keep shooting this, and they started shooting that stuff up—we went underneath another bloke. We flew underneath another Lanc and they fastened them on to him. I didn't stay and wait and see what happened to him, but I mean I think they might have got him. [Interview, Murray Maxton, Australians at War Film Archive; AWM 044856]
Copyright expired - public domain