BERLIN IN RUINS

Grey River Argus, 11 May 1945, Page 5

BERLIN IN RUINS

Foodless Millions DEPENDENT ON RUSSIANS. LONDON, May 9. A correspondeht says: Berlin is a city of the dead. As a metropolis it has simply ceased to exist. Every house within miles of the centre seems to have had its own bomb. The scene beggars description. I have seen Stalingrad! and I lived through the entire London blitz. I have -een dozens of badly damaged major Russian towns, but the scene of utter destruction, desolation, and death, as far as the eye can see in Berlin is something that almost baffled description. Dozens of well-known thoroughfares, including the Unter den Linden, from one end to the other are utterly, wrecked. The town is literally unrecognisable. Alexander Platz, in the east end, where the Gestapo Headquarters was, is a weird desert of rubble and gaping, smoke blackened walls. From the Brandenburg Gate, everything within a radius of two to five miles is destroyed. There does not appear to be one house in a hundred which is even useful as a shelter. Among the hundreds of well-known landmarks which disappeared, or have been irreparably damaged, are the former Kaiser’s Palace, Opera House, French, British, American and Japanese Embassies, Goering’s Air Ministry, Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, the Bristol and Adlon Hotels. Hitler’s Chancellery in the Wilhelmstrasse is like some vast abandoned ancient tomb of the dead. It has had several direct hits. “What war means has come to Berlin,” was Air Marshal Tedder’s comment. Another correspondent said: The only people in the streets who look like human beings are Russian soldiers. The Russian authorities said there were two million inhabitants in the city, but they were mostly in remote suburbs. In the centre of the city, you see only a few ghost-like figures of women and children —very few men—queueing up to pump Water. All observers to-day agree it would probably be impossible to rebuild the centre of Berlin for years, if ever. Fires are still burning here and there, and the dull sound of an exploding mine or dynamite being sprung can be heard every few minutes. Several red flags fly on the top of the Reichstag, which is a burned hollow. The Tiergarten, opposite the Reichstag, looks like a forest after a big fire. There has been heavy street fighting here. The correspondent motored from the Templehof airport in a car driven by a Russian who had come from Stalingrad, and during 30 minutes’ driving he saw only six houses which he was unable to see straight through, and where there were signs of habitation. The population and Red Army troops are trying to clear some streets, but it is like trying to shovel sand from the Pyramids of Egypt. The Russian Command has already erected huge sketch maps at main squares and crossings, without which it would be impossible to find one’s way in this now unrecognisable city. Except for the noise of occasional Russian Army cars, or the gentle trot of small horse-drawn carts, there is complete silence over tlie city, and the air is permanently filled with rubble and dust. However, one sign of life are interminable columns of people of all European nationalities, who appear animated more' by a homing spirit than by any, clear idea, whither they are going. These, columns sometimes a mile long, of people two and three abreast, are drawing tiny carts or waggons. Mr Arthur Henderson, Financial Secretary of the War Office, in a written reply to Sir Leonard Lyle (Conservative) in the Commons, stated that instructions had been issued by the Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Force that no imported foodstuffs will be issued to the German people except in extreme emergency. Such a state of emergency will be.held to arise when indigenous resources available in any area are insufficient to prevent disease, or as such that unless supplemented they will lead to an epidemic which will interfere with the objects of occupation. Levels of food consumption by the German population I will not be permitted to exceed those for civilians in liberated countries, and the actual amount of food which may be available is subject to these limitations, firstly, that requirements of Allied countries have priority over those of German civilians. Secondly, that the amount of food which can be imported into Europe as a whole is limited by transportation difficulties. The Russian military command is feeding hundreds of thousands of Berliners. The Red Army seized what food stocks the city had and added thereto from its own supplies. Berliners get daily a little meat, sugar, coffee, few potatoes and more bread than many got in Moscow during the winter of 1942. The Russians are obviously, not taking any vengeance against the population. The Russian troops are cheerful, enduring and good-natured. A correspondent asked a wellknown Russian writer, who was attending the surrender ceremony, why the Russians bothered about the population. He seemed surprised at the question, and replied: “We must look after the people. We cannot let 2,000,000 people die.” German executives of public utility undertakings voluntarily placed themselves at the disposal of the Russian Command, and Berlin workers reported to the Russian command posts, saying: “We are your soldiers -—ye work for you.” Many wounded .German soldiers from underground hospitals were sent to hospitals organised by Russians, where German doctors and nurses attend them, The Russians hope to have part of the underground railway system working by the middle of the month. Meantime, hundreds of burned out tramcars stand on the street tracks. Dead horses still lie in some streets, and many parts of the city are dangerous 1 . because of the risk of thousands of walls collapsing. The scene in the room where the Germans signed unconditional surrender is described by a Berlin correspondent, who says: Once the Germans had gone, several hundreds of people in the room had their faces wreathed in smiles. Marshals Tedder and Zhukov did a regular pumphandle handshake, and there were handshaking congratulations all round. An hour or so later the room had a festive air.- Russian girl waitresses laid the table for a typical Russian banquet. Toasts went on till after 4 a.m. Zhukov paid a handsome tribute to Eisenhower. “A magnificent general, one of the most talented this war has produced,” he said. Tedder recalled the toast he proposed in Moscow last January,: “To our meeting in the ruins of Berlin”. The sun was rising over the dead city as the victory banquet of Karlshorst broke . up. Russian soldiers chatting or waiting in the street pulled up' to salute in smart but friendly fashion, as, the British, American and French military envoys got into a fleet of cars to return to the business of winding up the war in Europe.