MR CHURCHILL'S STATEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25048, 11 November 1944, Page 7

MR CHURCHILL'S STATEMENT

(Received November 10, I 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, November IU When the House of Commons met today, the Prime Minister, Mr Churchill, made a statement about the German secret weapon V2, mentioned this week by the German High Command in its communique. He said that the Germans had been using long-range rockets against Britain for the past few weeks and that a number of them had landed at widely scattered points in this country. Total casualties and damage had so far not been heavy. No official statement had been made about the attacks, said Mr Churchill, because we wanted to withhold information from the enemy. This course had proved successful, because the Germans did not mention the new weapon themselves until two days ago when they put out a number of highly-coloured accounts. Mr Churchill said these German accounts were a reflection of what the German Government would wish their people to believe and were a measure of the desperate need to give the ' German public some encouragement. Mr Churchill said the rockets contained about the same amount of high explosive as the flying bomb. They penetrated more deeply before exploding and there was more damage near to the crater, but there was less effect from blast. They flew through the stratosphere, going up as high as 60 or 70 miles. In the present circumstances, Mr Churchill said, no reliable public warning could be given, but there was no need to exaggerate the danger, for the scale and effects of the V2 attacks had not so far been significant. Some rockets had been fired at Britain from Walcheren Island, now in our hands. Other areas from which rockets had come or might come would doubtless be over-run by our forces in due course. Nevertheless, we could not be certain that the enemy would not be able to increase the range of the rockets. » The use of V2 was just another attempt by the enemy to attack civilian morale in Britain in the vain hope that he might be able to stave off the defeat which faced him on the battlefield.