ALLIED BOMBING RAIDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25299, 9 August 1943, Page 3

ALLIED BOMBING RAIDS

GROWTH OF UNEMPLOYMENT LONDON, Aug. 6. “Berlin will be a target for enemy attacks, so partial evacuation of the city has already been carried out,” says Dr Goebbels in an article in the official newspaper, Voelkischer Beobachter. He added: “The only reply to the terror raid is massed counter-attacks, which we are not in a position to make. So we must strengthen our defences. “We don’t mind openly discussing evacuation problems because war is decided only through hard thinking and planning. England withstood a war of nerves in 1940; we must withstand a similar war in 1943. The Government will do what it can, but the population must consolidate. Everyone must do his duty. Everybody must keep his nerve.” Swedish correspondents say Hamburg is still without water, gas, light, and food. The newspaper Aftonbladet declares the city is uninhabitable, and the Afton-Tidningen says that approximately 180,000 Hamburg workers are unemployed as the result of the bombing. The paper adds: “Some idea of the extent of unemployment in Germany caused by bombing can be gained from plans worked out for the transfer of German industrial workers to agriculture. The bombings throughout Germany have thrown 400,000 out of work.”

The Hamburg police give the following casualties:—l7,29o dead, 28,456 injured, 7290 mising. 732.000 homeless. 274 industrial buildings and 14,608 houses destroyed. 321 industrial buildings and 21,379 houses damaged.

Berlin radio announced that Reichmarshal Goering arrived at Berlin from Hitler’s headquarters and proceeded to Hamburg, where he inspected the air-raid damage and discussed remedial measures with Gauleiter Kaufmann.