THE WAR ON LONDON

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 157, 31 December 1940, Page 6

THE WAR ON LONDON

The latest Nazi air raid on London, described as one of the severest of the war, may be taken as a symptom of the desperate state of the Axis fortunes. The Air Ministry confirms this impression that the German bombing was a deliberate attempt to set fire to the City of London without any idea of singling out military objectives. The rulers of Germany, said a radio commentator, taken aback by the stubbornness of British resistance, are still floundering about without any fixed policy. Their bombings, he said, are no reply to the British air attacks on vital German war industries. This seems the sanest view to take of the whole position. There is no question whatever of the effectiveness of R.A.F. attacks on all parts of the German war machine in Geimany and in the territory occupied by Germany. One clear sign of this is that the Germans have long ceased to remove machinery from Polish factories to German centres, and instead are shifting their war industries as far away as possible, back to Poland and elsewhere, from the range of British bombers. The bombers of longer range still which the British are building themselves or getting from America will soon, how-

jever, place every part of Europe now under the Axis at their mercy. This is part of the programme for the coming year. It is to be noted also that the proportion of casualties in Britain under recent Nazi air attacks does not increase with the extent of damage to property. While historic buildings of all kinds, such as London's famous Guildhall, are suffering greatly, the actual military damage in Britain is, by the evidence of many neutral observers, not sufficient to hamper, much less cripple, Britain's war effort. Against night attack from the air neither side has any immediate complete defence, as Mr. Churchill has stated. Victory will come with the growing strength of the British Air Force and its power to destroy the very sources of Germany's capacity for offensive tactics in the air and under the sea.