DAMAGE TO BERLIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24775, 24 December 1943, Page 7

DAMAGE TO BERLIN

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

8500 TONS OF BOMBS FALL (Herri. 0.10 p.m.) LONDON, Doc. 2D

The damage to Berlin, caused by the six Hoy a I Air Force attacks since November 18, has now been photographed, says the Air Ministry, quoted by the British official wireless. The greatest damage is in the western part from Mitte, the central district, outward the damaged areas being the Tiergarteu, Mitte and Charlottenburg districts. Just south of the Tiergarten are the Embassies, also important industries and many administrative buildings. No attempt can be made at this stage to assess the damage in particular to buildings. There has been extensive damage to public and Ministerial buildings in the central areas, which cannot be swept by fire and devastated as a whole, because the buildings are solidly built and widely spaced. Other districts in which there has been heavy and widespread damage are the working-class area of Reinickendorf, where there are many industries, and the Schoneburg and Wilmerdorf districts.

The photographs leave no doubt that the damage from these six attacks goes far beyond anything done before November IS, when the real Battle of Berlin began. In the six attacks 8500 tons of bombs were dropped, says a later message. Practically every one of the German Ministries were damaged, also the headquarters of the S.S. Corps. Seventy war factories were also damaged. It is estimated that before these raids the R.A.F. had wrought havoc in Berlin amounting to three-quarters of the damage done to London in the German blitz. Now the heart of Berlin has been far more effectively hit.

The Air Ministry report is an interim one, the message ados, as the Battle of Berlin is not yet over.

The German Minister for Propaganda, Goebbels, expressing Hitler's thanks to the Berlin A.R.P. fire, services, said, according to Berlin radio: "We must expect still further attacks against Berlin, but the day is coming when our anti-aircraft defences, which are steadily growing stronger, and our retaliation, will end the doings of those Huns of the air." He added: "Once victory is won it will not be long before Berlin is rebuilt on a magnificent scale."