STILL AFIRE

Grey River Argus, 27 November 1943, Page 5

STILL AFIRE

RAIDS ON BERLIN THE NINETY-SECOND Smoke Reaches Sweden [Aust, w N.Z. Press Assn.l LONDON, Nov. 25. Wednesday night’s Mosquito raid on Berlin was the city s 92nd., an its 29th this year. It was the 17th that Mosquitoes have made since mid-August. . , A Reuter correspondent in Stockholm states: — _ A thick smoke haze from the lues raging in Berlin, over 300 miles away, covered the Oeland Islands off the Swedish east coast for three hours yesterday. Eye-witnesses reaching Sweden to-day stated that the R. bombs destroyed so many houses in one Berlin suburb that at least 85 per cent, of Ifc will have to be evacuated. Almosf>. every building on one side’ of the has been destroyed or damaged. T’he S. barracks and Sports PaLast were directly hit. Four people with their clothes blazing threw themselves from the fourth floor window of a Kurfustendamm building. “Early retaliation is promised against the British for their raids on Berlin—not with the Luftwaffe,” said the Official German News Agency to-day. “The German Military Command regrets that things have gone so far as a result of the behaviour of the British terror raiders that it can no longer close its, ears to the call for retaliation. Retaliation will be hard, but it will be fair punishment for all the misdeeds which the British have committed against the German civil population. The German army is ready to execute retaliation immediately the orders are given. Berlin Still Burning FOOD SHORTAGE. (Rec. 7.40.) LONDON, Nov. 25. According to travellers who reached Malmoe on Thursday night, fires were still, burning on Thursday in Berlin, one of the biggest being the famous Hotel Bristol, which sustained a direct hit by a load of incendiaries. Reports trickling through from neutral sources give further graphic details of what happened in Berlin during and after the raids on Monday and Tuesday nights. The Stockholm “Svenski Norgenbladet’s” Berlin correspondent says: Air-raid wardens shot several panic-stricken occupants in one shelter in Spandau, this being done in order to prevent a spread of hysteria. Berlin was still in a state of chaos to-day, although two days had elapsed since the last large-scale R.A.F. raid. Communications to neutral countries were by no means restored. Many radio transmitters were still not working. Railway and road traffic was disorganised. ■ The German News Agency says: The River Spee is again a traffic lane. Many boats which before the outbreak plied on pleasure trips, have returned to serve as a means of communication. Describing damage, a neutral eyewitness said that the Potsdamer Platz was levelled to the ground. The Zeug Haus, which was an Army Museum, in which the 1918 Armistice Railway Coach was exhibited, was practicallv destroyed. Other reports describe saooers as blowing up Berlin houses in order to localise fires. . The Swedish paper “Aftontidningen” reported that there was a food shortage in Berlin on Wednesday. The Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau stated that Hitler’s deputy, Bormann, told Gauleiters at reception areas to prepare for thousands of air-raid evacuees. . The German Foreign Press Chief, Doctor Paul Schmidt, suffered concussion from a falling beam at the Berlin Press Club on Tuesday night. Berlin a Front Line Town GERMANS NEWSPAPER’S VIEW.

(Rec 12.50.) LONDON, Nov. 26.. The British United Press Madrid correspondent, quoting neutral diplomatic sources, says that following the R.A.F.’s most recent raids Berliners, for the first time since tne outbreak of war, are openly blaming Hitler and Goering for the lack of proper protection and are even demonserating against the Nazi regime. The “Voelkischer Beobachter” says that Berlin has become a front-line town. The battle for the capital has begun. The city has stood the bitter test. Days of reprisal will come.. With clenched teeth and bitter hatred against the enemy the people of Berlin are carrying out their duty, fully conscious that they are contributing to victory, says “Allgemeine Zeitung.” According to a message from Essen received at Zurich all of the coalmines are no longer working in the Rhineland and Westpahlia. Some must be converted immediately into air-raid shelters to ensure the safety of tens of thousands of workers employed in these districts. The army is helping to construct living quarters and sanitary installations. . The British United Press Stockholm correspondent reports that, an emergency radio service has started in Berlin for the transmission of Government and other official messages The telephone between Berlin ano Stockholm is working again Telegraph communication is still suspended and messages are reaching Berlin via Hamburg. GOERING TALKS OF RETRIBUTION. (Rec 9-50.) LONDON. Nov. 26. Marshal Goering appealed to Ess*n miners not to decide that the war had be en lost. He said: “Things will be easier when Germany wages the British types of aerial warfare. Every German knows that this is coming soon. Every Englishman fears the hour of retribution.” He added that the raids came as a surprise to him, as he had always wanted to humanise warfare