TREMENDOUS FIRES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21260, 24 November 1943, Page 3

TREMENDOUS FIRES

HEART OF BERLIN

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION VAST DAMAGE ADMITTED (11 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 23. The onslaught on Berlin last night was another cloud-cover attack like four nights ago. Both on the outward and homeward journeys, the bombers flew hundreds of miles' over an unbroken sea of cloud. Over Berlin there was an occasional gap through which the crews caught a glimpse ' of the ground—vivid coloured lights of the marker bombs rising from a pillar of black smoke and a red patch of lire. But the bombaimers were not looking for gaps. The “pathfinders” were out in force and dropped in a dense concentration an unbroken succession of target indicators and pyrotechnic flares from start to finish. The enemy guns were shooting at the flares as they fell, but nothing stopped the “pathfinders" from building up an unmistakable target of coloured lights and keeping it thick throughout the attack for just over half an hour from 8 o’clock. Soon the clouds began to reflect the glow of the lires below and, even through the cloud several thousand feet thick, the light was so bright that the crews saw each other’s bombs as they fell. Twenty minutes after the first bombs were dropped, hundreds of the • crews saw one of the most violent explosions ever reported from a German target. A navigator said:— “Everything suddenly went all white. The brilliance stayed in the sky a long time and then coloured to a reddish glow which went on as long as we were over the target. It was like a terrific sunset. The attack was so well concentrated that while we were over Berlin we saw only one flash of a 4000-pounder outside the lires in the main target area. We saw about 50 ■block-busters’ go olf in that time.” Few Night Fighters Out Very few night fighters were over Berlin, and the German forces let loose a great barrage which had once been the main defence of the capital before modern tactics forced the enemy to use so great a part of his air force to protect his cities. The searchlights were blocked by the clouds and, without any hope of the bombers being “coned,” the gunners could only blaze away at all the sky above Berlin. There was enough heavy “flak,” however, to bring shells near many bombers. Single night fighters, which were- over Berlin while the attack was on, had to face their own barrage. As during last week’s attack on Berlin, most of the anti-aircraft batteries en route were in action. * Mosquitoes attacked targets in western Germany and mines were laid in enemy waters. Twenty-six bombers are missing. Heavy Loss of Life The Berlin radio reports a heavy Royal Air Force raid on Berlin late last night, when heavy damage and loss of life was caused in many parts of the city, mainly in working-class . districts. Describing the raid as “a terror attack,” the German News Agency states it was carried out in spite of . dense clouds and complete lack of visibility. Irreplaceable historic and * cultural buildings were destroyed and others damaged, including several be- . longing to diplomatic missions of neutral States. A large number of British fourengined bombers carried out the raid on Berlin. Reuter’s Agency says that the German public was told about the raid in the first news bulletins to-day. It is quite unusual for the German radio to give news of a raid in the first bulletins. The departure from the normal practice seems to indicate that the damage was on an unusually heavy scale.