CITY IN RUINS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20804, 6 June 1942, Page 3

CITY IN RUINS

RAID ON_COLOGNE GERMAN ENORMOUS DEVASTATION (By Telegraph—rresa Aaan.—Copyright.) (11 a.m.) LONDON, June 5. • The first copy of the Cologne newspaper Kolnische Zeitung to arrive in Stockholm since the Royal Air Force raid states that the centre of the city is in ruins. Nine churches were destroyed. “One night of British terror has completely changed for us the city’s so well-known face,” it says. "The devastation is enormous. Much of what is inseparable from Cologne tradition is gone for ever.” The paper explained that it had not been able to publish for four days, arid that fires were still smouldering. Another Swedish report states that the havoc at Cologne was worse than anyone could possibly imagine. Entire districts of the city were completely irazed/and long streets were without a single 'house standing. The worst hit part of the city was between the City Hall and important port installations. This was almost rubbed out. Signs I everywhere on the walls of ruins declared: “Emergency! Whoever loots .will be shot.” Other posters gave large lists, of the names of men and women looters who had been executed. The Turkish newspaper Ulus, commenting on the raid, says: “The scores of Britain. ; and Germany in the air are. •completely reversed';, -The bombing- of Cologne'is : ih\ttje''aif' War., ...The.humber'.of.British.air.orait was three times as great as the number of German aircraft which bombed Coventry.” Foreign Workers Used /

The allocation of altitudes ol operation to each individual squadron, or even flight, was another feature of the Royal Air Force raid on Cologne. The losses and. the percentage of aircraft damaged were not more than in a normal raid: For both the 1000-bomber raids the ground staffs were toiling for 48 hours on end without a definite break and their work was made even harder by the need for the dispersal of aircraft in order to limit the damage from enemy raids.

It is clear from reports reaching London from German-occupied countries that the workers in these countries are more and more being sent to areas inside the Reich most vulnerable to Royal Air Force attacks. It is ascertained that there are nearly 100,000 of these workers now employed in factories of the Ruhr and Rhineland target area. Of this total, about 40,000 are Frenchmen, mostly in the iron and steel foundries, while at Krupps’ Essen works, French, Belgians, and Dutch are known to be employed. Of 35,000 miners working ir. Germans, 25,000 are known to be concentrated in the target areas.

A dispatch from Moscow says that the 1000-bomber raids on Cologne and the Ruhr have created the most profound impression in the Russian capital. Everyone is talking about them, and the newspapers carry long stories of the attacks and for the first time maps of the Ruhr, to enable the raids to be followed by the Russian people. The newspaper Red Fleet published a long article outlining the industrial importance of the Ruhr to Germany. The Red Army long ranee bomber commander, Lieutenant - General A. Golovanov, has sent a message to Air Marshal Harris congratulating the British Bomber Command on the recent massed blows on Hitlerite Germany. Air Marshal Harris replied that the' greetings were all the more appreciated because they came from airmen “whose deeds filled us with admiration of their courage and efficiency.”