“NERVE WAR REACHES CLIMAX”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 202, 27 August 1943, Page 5

“NERVE WAR REACHES CLIMAX”

IBy Telegraph— P.-cm Association— Copyrigh*) Recd. 9.35 p.m. London, Aug. 26. Panic swept Berlin following the R.A.F.'s devastating raid on Monday, according to a traveller who arrived in Stockholm from the German capital. Crowds rushed aimlessly in the streets, crying and yelling, and many fled. The bombing was worst in the centre of the city, where communications were completely disorganised. Berlin on Tuesday was a dead city. Practically all offices, shops and factories were closed, and no trains, buses or trains were running - . Parts of the city were still burning - fiercely on Wednesday mornin.o - . The fires immediately after the raid were colossal. Probably because of activity by the R.A.F., all German radio stations were off the air last night except Vienna and one or two other stations situated in evacuated areas, from which the late German news bulletin was given out.

“Berliners are really panicky. The nerve war has reached a climax I did not think possible,*’ says the Berlin correspondent of the Berne newspaper Die Nation, in an article written before the R.A.F.’s raid on Monday night. The correspondent adds: “The mental tension has become unbearable. The wiping out of Hamburg is a terrifying spectre whic. has turned Berlin into a real lunatic asylum. Schools have closed and one million children have been evacuated. Persons not obliged to remain for professional or other reasons have been officially ordered to leave the city. Hundreds of these who must remain besiege stations night! v for transport to the countryside where they may sleep.’’ i The correspondent, with undisguised -A Sarcasm, proceeds: “While Germany is fighting successful defence battles on the Eastern Front and has ended the Sicilian campaign with a victorious retreat, and also whi’e terrific reprisals are threatened against Britain, Berlin flies to the woods. “Following Mussolini’s fall and the blow against Hamburg, one thing that could shatter the Berliners' confidence was the injunction bv huge posters: •Protect your lives and property.’ This opened the eyes of the whole German people to the unfavourable turn in the fortunes of war which could no longer be hidden.” The correspondent describes Berliners as terrified by a new device which they say the R.A.F. used at Hamburg. This device, it is stated, consists of “dropping coal-dust, sulphur and phosphorus, and then incendiaries. causing an explosion similar to fire-damp in a mine, bringing down even the strongest walls.” The correspondent adds that, according to German anti-aircraft crews, the R.A.F. is using another device which is also reported form Italy, i namely: “Dropping naner strips electrically charged, which instantly d r - : feated the comolicated devices built; up bv the Germans against the , R.A.F.” The Government’s nlans for the •vacuation of th Q chief Ministers from Berlin were changed three times in the last four weeks, says a despatch from the German frontier to Th° Times. Hitler first decided on Fuerstenwalde. but this was abandoned because of the proximity of too many war industries. next decided on Bamberg. The decision was hardly made when Allied planes appeared over Nuremberg in daylight, showing that Bamberg was no safer than Berlin. The final choice was Vienna, where already more than 400.000 Nazi Pariy officials have their headquarters, but the sudden bombing of the Mesiers?hmitt works at , Wienerneustadt again showed that the place selected was within bomber range. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says the evacuation of the Foreign Ministry from Berlin to Vienna was actually begun, but it is hot known whether Ihe bombing of wwnern~ustadt caused a change" in blans. The Ministry of Education is being transferred to Posen and the Labour Ministry to Cracow. TTie majority of Berlin teachers and tchoo’children are being sent to Poland, mainly the Lodz and Posen districts. Evacuees are mostly being 7 directed to Poland, the Baltic States Ind Austria. According to the latest information, ibout half a million Berliners have already arrived in Poland. The Germans find space for the refugees by the simple method of rounding up **nles, Estonians. Latvians and Lithuinians. or otherwise inducing them to jeave for Germany. Gormanv's fugitives are sheltering even in Warsaw’s ghettos which, fol’owinr the recent massacre nf Jews, have been cleaned ip for their reception.