GREAT INFERNO

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

GREAT INFERNO

BURNING_CAPITAL GAS & POWER CUT OFF UP TO 10,000 CASUALTIES (Noon.) LONDON, Nov. 23. The raid against Berlin last night was heavier than any experienced even by Hamburg. A report from Zurich states that all districts of Berlin, as well as the suburbs, suffered damage. The devastation was particularly heavy in the centre of Berlin, especially near the Unter den Linden, Alexanderplatz and Friedrichstrasse. The Stockholm paper Afton Tidningen gives a preliminary estimate of 10,000 killed' or injured in the raid. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm • paper Aftonbladet, in a dispatch to-day, says: “We had horrible hours. Berlin burned all night. Great sections of the dwelling quarters and buildings in the city are still burning to-day and are' covered by a great black cloud of smoke. Several embassies and legations in the diplomatic quarter were burned to the ground. The Berlin office of the Aftonbladet was destroyed. “A number of suburbs were badly damaged, including Siemenstadi, where the great Siemens electrical works are situated, also Spandau, Wilmersdof, Neukoeln, Licbtenberg and Pankow. Many of these areas were hard hit in previous raids. “Transport in many sections of Berlin has broken down and electrical and gas services are interrupted.” The Press Association correspondent at a Royal Air Force bomber base said: “Berlin was a great sea of flames and explosions which the crews of the returning planes saw for 70 miles through solid ploud. The clouds were so thick that the Germans were apparently unable to get a single night lighter off the ground, but the ground defences threw up a great “flak’ barrage.” The Press Association’s aviation correspondent estimates that, with, last night’s raid, about 10,000 tons of bombs have been dropped on Berlin this year.