Bombs Away

Out of the North Sea overcast one day last week, a flight of planes made repeated runs on a sandbar called Grosser Knechtsand and unloaded 45 bombs. The explosions sent clouds of wild geese honking into the air, more frightened than injured, for the bombs contained only light training charges.

Nevertheless, honks of protest went up all over West Germany. Not only is Knechtsand a wild goose sanctuary near the fishing and resort town of Cuxhaven; it is also regularly visited by a game warden and a band of volunteer bird lovers, aged 10 to 68, who are helping build up the dunes to save the sandbar from the gnawing surf. Had they been on Knechtsand that day, they might have been killed or wounded.

Who bombed Knechtsand? At first, suspicion was directed at Britain's R.A.F., which used the sandbar as a bombing range after World War II. A British official assured the government of Lower Saxony that none of its planes based in Germany had been responsible. The following day London said that no R.A.F. planes based anywhere had made the bombing run. West Germany's air force insisted it had nothing to do with the incident. So did the U.S. Air Force in Europe. So did Norway, France, Denmark, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Had the planes come from behind the Iron Curtain? The West German Defense Ministry did not know. Then what of the extensive and expensive radar net set up by West Germany and its NATO allies to prevent just such incursions? A Defense spokesman replied embarrassedly that there had been no reports of planes appearing on any radar screen, and added bleakly: "We have no idea what aircraft bombed Knechtsand. The investigation is continuing."

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