GERMAN CAPITAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24491, 27 December 1940, Page 4

GERMAN CAPITAL

AN IMPORTANT TARGET MANY WAR INDUStRIES ATTACK ESSENTIAL When British bombers fly over Berlin and release their deadly freight (states the Evening Post) there must be few people in the Empire who do not feel satisfaction at the fact that the capital of the Nazi empire is being attacked. Perhaps, however, there are some who feel doubts .about whether the raid is worth the effort involved. They may be assured that it is well worth, while. .... In fact; Berlin is so important a target that no air war on the Reich could be complete: if it were omitted from the schedule of R.A.F. objectives. The first problem of a war of this kind -is the selection of the targets which are worth attacking. , The destruction of even one industry riW demand unremitting attention to a wide variety of tarsfpts * ' Here are some of the things which are made in or around the capital of the Reich; aero engines, high explosive and incendiary bombs, auto-pilots, night-flying equipment, airframes, machine tools (some famous firms which helped to fit out the shops of the British aircraft industry are there), duralumin, arms, Uniforms, gas masks, gas shelters, and anti-gas equipment, steel helmets, calcium carbide,; compressed air, blind-landing equipment, telephones, cables, accumulators parachutes; training aircraft, airscrews, sights for A.A. guns, heavy trucks for carrying troops, bomb racks, radiators, observer apparatus, oxygen apparatus, aero instruments. ... Works Like a Town Among the firms engaged are-Sie-mens and Halske, whose works at S,iemenstadt are a town in themselves; Daimler-Benz, whose motors take German aircraft over Britain week after week; Henschel. the great locomotive builders at Cassel, who five years ago began making airframes outside Berlin; A. E. G. Bucker, who build elementary trainers for future Nazi pilots; the Heine airscrew plant, and the Argus aero-engine factory.. -.,.,■,.■. :'■■■> --„i:. In the ..year tha\ Hitler came, - .to power, the ' Siemenstadt plant had 45,000 workers, but' capacity for' 135,000 and the Nazi re-armament plan quickly filled it to that capacity. Plants of this size are vulnerable if the canteens which feed the workers are assailed, because a large proportion of the staff live in houses on the firm's "estate" and depend on;; company supplies for their food. :..,„:\..c.:: ~;-sd "(RH Laid Out for Protection Even the Henschel factory, which was laid out to give protection from air attack, with each building having its own power, light, water, and antiaircraft protection, arid with wide spaces between the " staggered " structures, is vulnerable. In this instance the bombing of the railway which links Schonefeld. where the factory stands, with Berlin would interfere with production. These things serve to. show how " varied is the problem of air assault on Berlin and how flexible must be the method of the R.A.F. in attacking it. The key to a successful offensive is obviously proper target selection, and in the application of this' principle Britain must depend very largely on her intelligence organisation.