BERLIN HAVOC

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24759, 6 December 1943, Page 3

BERLIN HAVOC

BATTLES OYER CITY MANY NIGHT FIGHTERS OUT DESPERATE DEFENCE EFFORT LONDON, Dec. 4 "Berlin was completely paralysed after Thursday night's great raid," says the Stockholm newspaper Allehanda. "No daily newspapers appeared and street traffic was blocked. At least 30 block-busters are stated to have been dropped. Many bombs fell around Potsdammer Platz >and the Anhalter railway station. Northern and southern districts, where many factories are situated, were also badly hit." Cliarlottenburg, a western suburb of Berlin, which contains the Bewag power station, railway goods yard and the Fnnkhaus (Berlin's 8.8.C.), was the worst-hit area, according to the impressions of air passengers from Berlin who have arrived at Stockholm. They emphasised that not a house in Cliarlottenburg remained undamaged. Bombs also pounded Alexander Platz and the Wilhelmstrasse. Many houses were destroyed in the suburb of Lichtenrade. Fierce Opposition Met Three German reporters who came to the Berlin radio's microphone said that they had helped to extricate between 70 and 80 people from every cellar of the houses of one working-class district. The Oslo radio announced that formations of German night-fighters protected Berlin and fought out air battles with exceptional intensity, even over the city. The Berlin radio stated that up to 11 p.m. the bodies of 146 British airmen had been recovered from wrecked planes. Official quarters in Berlin claim that the raid was a heavy defeat for the attackers. German night-fighters formed a veritable curtain between the outskirts of Berlin and the River Elbe, fiercely attacking along the whole route. The British this time met quite different opposition as compared with the last raid and paid a much heavier price, chiefly owing to the fact that the weather favoured the defenders. Bombers Undaunted "The great battle over Berlin was continued on Thursday night, when the latest heavy attack began a few minutes after 8 p.m. and lasted just over half an hour," states the British official wireless. "The Germans massed scores of fighters over or near the target in a desperate effort to save the capital from further destruction. Lanes of fighter flares had been laid as far as 50 miles from Berlin and extended right up to the city itself. Above hovered fighters, but in spite of them and of massed flak and hundreds of searchlights the bombers went through to their objectives." Our heavy bombers, states the Air .Ministry, dropped over 1500 tons of bombs on Berlin on Thursday night. Although full reports are not yet to hand, it is known our bombers destroyed three enemy fighters. New Objectives in City Even excluding the suburbs, the densely built-up area of Berlin covers about 18,000 acres, and Thursday night's attack was against new objectives in the city. The weather during the operations dictated the necessity for a very early attack. There was a low moon when the raid commenced. It was very clear above the clouds and there was good visibility in the cleatpatches of sky at times. Our aircraft made their bombing runs across a huge expanse of cloudless sky with the city below and great banks of cloud all round. This made an arena in which the crews fought their way to the objectives. Some crews reported bombing through intense cloud, as in the early attacks on Berlin last month. The only fixed point throughout their attack was made by Pathfinders' flares and markers. Whatever the condition of the sky, these gave a steady point of aim for the bombers.