A.R.P. INEFFICIENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25426, 6 January 1944, Page 3

A.R.P. INEFFICIENT

FIRE WATCHERS DEMORALISED (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says a German n.c.o. from the east front, writing in the Allgemeine Zeitung, says he and his comrades spent hours after coming home to Berlin silently viewing the bomb ruins. “Berlin’s new face is like that of Kharkov, Kiev and Jitomir,” he said. A Swedish A.R.P. expert who witnessed the November raids in Berlin sent the Swedish A.R.P. authorities a report revealing that the German comb-out for the army had drained A.R.P. man-power to such an extent that three front-line divisions had been sent to Berlin to reinforce the rescue squads when the mass raids started. The report adds that the inefficient firewatchers became demoralised) and sought shelter, with the result that incendiaries were not tackled for 90 minutes. The Times correspondent on the Gorman frontier saye the Munich paper Neueste Nachrichten, in an article, says' “Many Germans during the blazing nights of the last few months have asked anxious questions —how long will the civilian population be able to endure the horrors of air warfare? How long must we wait until a counter-blow is delivered, and why, when, war is total, are the German leaders so hesitant about employing the means at their disposal? The answer can be deduced only from the fact that the process of the complete mobilisation of all the forces of war is now in the decisive stage. The war is now rapidly approaching a stage when th.e enemy, to achieve victory, must and will fling in his entire potential’lies. Germany must be equipped for this moment. Everything points to the fact that the New Year will summon the combatants to a still mightier contest, perhaps the last clash of arms, ending in the final decision.”