R.A.F. RAID MAKES HOLOCAUST IN BERLIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 280, 26 November 1943, Page 5

R.A.F. RAID MAKES HOLOCAUST IN BERLIN

THIRD BIG BLASTING CITY SWEPT BY FLAMES ENTIRE DISTRICTS BLAZING (By Tel err a ph—Press Association— Copyrighti Reed. 7.30 p.m. London, Nov. 24. An Air Ministry communique, announcing that Bomber Command planes made another heavy attack on Berlin last night, said that first reports show that the bombing was again concentrated and effective. Mosquitoes attacked objectives in Western Germany. Twenty of our planes are missing. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent says that the raid last night started gigantic new fires and caused very heavy damage, especially in western Berlin near the zoo. The Potsdammer Railway Station and adjacent warehouses are reported to have been devastated. The correspondents of Swedish newspapers refer to walls of flame over half a mile long after last night’s raid. Allehanda’s Berne correspondent states that it is believed that 25,000 were killed in Monday night’s raid and estimated that the R.A.F. used 900 planes in last night’s attack. The Afton Tidningen states that all work in Berlin factories and offices is at a standstill as everybody is being employed in rescue and salvage operations. I Entire districts of the capital are burning fiercely.

The explosions from “blockbusters” rocked all sections of Berlin last night, but fires provided the worst horrors. A storm cloud of ashes swept through the streets, accompanied ny terrific gusts of flame caused by the peculiar effect of the bomb blasts. Tne explosions appeared to create a vacuum followed by a cyclone-like wave of fire. The fire-fighting service was incapable of handling the task. Entire blocks were enveloped in flames this morning, resulting in a summer-like temperature in the city. The telephone exchanges of Stockholm are unable to get a reply from Berlin through whicn calls pass for nearly all occupied Europe. Direct telegraphic communication with Ber- / lin is also stopped. Most of the German short-wave transmitters have not operated since Monday night’s raid. The German news agency stated that the raids against Berlin were the gravest carried out against any German town.

A Germahi High Command communique, referring to last night’s raid, says: “This terror attack, carried out by strong forces, caused fresh heavy daamge by fires in several districts. Extensive residential quarters and numerous public buildings, including i\elfare institutions, churches, and cultural monuments, were destroyed. * “Fighters and anti-aircraft fire shot down 19 raiders despite the difficult defence conditions.” The German news agency stated: “Early retaliation is promised against the British for the raids on Berlin—retaliation not with the Luftwaffe. The German military command regrets that things have gone so far as a result of the behaviour of British terror raiders that it can no longei close its ears to the e call for retaliation. The retaliation will be hard, but will be a fair punishment for all the misdeeds which the British have committed against the German civil population. “The German army is ready to execute the retaliation immediately the orders are given.” “This is the real stuff. The Bomber Command’s real power is now operating normally,” declared the Air Minister, Sir Archibald Sinclair, in an exclusive interview with Reuter. He added: “It will be kept up and the only limiting factor will be the weather. Our attacks against the heart of Germany will continue to be as heavy as they have been any time this year, indeed, they will be heavier. “These attacks will continue throughout the winter. Bigger and better bombers than the Lancasters are on the way. Improvements on well-tried heavy and light bombers are now coming off the production lines here and in America. In addition, new types have actually left the drawing board and will soon be coming from the factories. They will fly faster, carry a greater weight of bombs, and he better defended. “The losses which we have suffered so far have not influenced our policy of strategic bombing of the German war machine. The aircraft coming from the factories of Britain. America, and the Dominions and the aircrews turned out by the Empire Air Training Scheme are sufficient not only to supply the wastage, but to provide for a steady expansion of the Bomber Command. "The Germans have passed the peak of their aircraft production and the British and American bombers will not let them regain it.” A vivid picture of the holocaust in Berlin resulting from the R.A.F. raids is gained from reports to the Swedish Press and stories told by travellers, who say that whole districts were flattened by bombs and swept by uncontrollable flames. . Arrivals from Germany have pictured Berlin as "a flaming torch of ruin.” One traveller who arrived at Malmoe to-day said that Berlin was in a terrible state. Tremendous fires were burning throughout the city. The Berlin correspondent of the Allehand reported that the entire area around the Lehrter railway station was “just a mass of flames.” The fire-fighters, weary after 48 sleepless hours and handicapped by lack of man-power, had to struggle against suffocating smoke. Even this morning the A.R.P. workers were unable to control the fires and remove the bodies. The Mittelstrasse, running parallel with Unter den Linden, was carpeted with incendiaries and the entire street was a river of flames. .Other eye-witnesses say that the heat in some places was so fierce that people were collapsing in tens of thousands and leaving the city, some with only the clothes they were wearing. The toll of damage is growing. The university buildings, which were set on fire, burned all day long. The State library also was "on fire, the Todt organisation offices were badly damaged, the Wertheim department, store, one of the greatest in Europe, was burning furiously. The store backs on to the Voss Strasse, wherein the Reich Chancellery stands. The radio services seem to be completely disorganised.

I CAPITALCRIPPLED HOW HITLER ESCAPED Recd. 8.30 p.m. London, Nov. 24. The general impression of travellers i arriving in Sweden from Germany is that the two R.A.F. raids against Berlin are doing what scores of German raids against London failed to do—largely crippling the life of the capital. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Express says: "One thing'is clear: After only two raids of total war Berlin is staggering and groggy and isolated to a considerable extent from quick relief. Telephones and cables are interrupted. Seven main railway stations are damaged, which is bound to delay bringing food and clothes to bombed-out Berliners.” Swedish passengers who spent the night in the Mexican Legation shelter said the temperature rose to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. One passenger added: "I have a distinct Impression that the last two raids destroyed at least half Berlin.” Others report that troops in gas-masks were called out to aid the overwhelmed fire-fight-ers in dealing with broken gas mains throughout the city. There was a continuous half-mile of burning houses m one section in the West End. The city echoed throughout the day with explosions of time-bombs and the dull rumble of collapsing buildings. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people who were bombed out queued up outside Nazi welfare offices for accommodation after the first raid. The Associated Press Berne correspondent reports that Hitler was in conference at the Chancellery when the raid alarm sounded on Monday right. He went to a shelter, emerged unharmed, and left Berlin early the I next morning by car. Production Cl ef Speer and others present were also unharmed. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Mail says the disruption of the Press Services and Propaganda Ministry is believed to be due to the de-

struction of the building and Goebbels’ hunt for a house for himself. ■ Goering as well as Goebbels and Ribbentrop were bombed out. The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau's Berlin correspondent says he saw Ribbentrop carrying a tin-hat helping to salvage property at the Foreign Office. The Gazette de Lausanne quotes the comment of a neutral diplomat after Monday night’s raid. The diplomat, summing up his impressions, used one word: "Gotterdammerung”| —"twilight of the gods.” t The Stockholm Afton Tidningen editorially declares: "The Germansi spoke of wiping out Br’.tish towns. Their results are in no way com-| parable with the terrible results the heavy Allied attacks cause economic and administrative centres. The 'European Fortress’ must soon, for the unfortunate peoples, become a deathtrap where none can find safety. Germany admits that the devastation calls for the Berliners to ‘clench their fists and bear their wounds.’ ” After Berlin radio was silent to- | night for an hour and a-half "for technical reasons,” Goebbels, as Berlin’s Gauleiter and Defence Commisar. issued a proclamation: "Theenemy is trying to destroy places ot German culture by "terror attacks. The enemy was mistaken if he assumed that Berlin's morale might be worse than other German towns. One day the bitter time through which we are now living will end and a new and more beautiful Berlin will rise after victory from the debris of the destroyed houses.” A Wil helmstrasse spokesman is emoted as saying that Germany will now use a secret weapon to avenge the raids Paris radio’s commentator. Jean Paquis, gave over his entire commentary to threat« of reprisals for the Berlin raids: Hp said: "The bombings only increase the determination of the Germans for implacable final reprisals which will change the fac° of the war. I wouldn’t like to be an Englishman. Nothing will ston the Luftwaffe when it carriers under its belly the death of the whole people." CONTROL OF BERLIN TAKEN OVER BY ARMY Recd. 11 p.m. London. Nov. 25. Th n German Army and S.S. troops have taken over control of Berlin, reports the Daily Mail’s Stockholm . correspondent. ; Other reports reaching Stockholm state that all Ministries and Govern,meni offices except the Ministry of , the Interior and the Central Po'ice Office are said to be quitting Berlin. llt is also reported that the capital is I being transferred to Vienna Karlsbad if Berlin is made uninhabitable. I Latest arrivals in Stockholm from I Berlin tell how bears, elenhant and jother animals running wild in the street after a zoo was hit, had to be machine-gunned.

NEW REGION BOMBED OLD FIRES STILL BURNING Recd. 7 p.m. Rugby, Nov. 24. Fires which were started the night before were still burning when last night’s heavy bomber force, mostly Lancasters, reached Berlin. The crews saw the flares on the clouds when they were 50 miles from the target. They described the dull red glow and the dim outline of streets lit by the previous night's raid. A pilot making his fourth attack on Berlin said that the cloud was a good deal thinner than on Monday night. He could see the city itself through an occasional gap. Soon there was a big area of new fires. One large explosion, although not as large as on the previous night, lit up a great part of the sky. Though more night fighters weie uo than on Monday, there were still fewer than was usual during an attack on Berlin. The heavy flak did not seem quite so intense as on the previous night, but was no longer in rough barrage form, while the light flak, of which there was an enormous amount, had no chance of getting within range of the bombers. The searchlights seemed to be used mainly to light up the cloud and silhouette the bombers. The attack began af 8 p.m. and lasted just over 20 minutes, and the bomb-load dropped brought the weight of high explosives and incendiaries rained on Berlin within a week to well over 5000 tons. One reason for making so early an attack was to avoid going through an approaching storm with the bomb bays full.

Berlin’s defence services must have been overwhelmed by the task of putting out the fires started on the night before, and preventing them from guiding another, force of bombers to the capital. Pathfinders marked out a new area beside the old fires. All the crews agreed that the target was extremely well marked. A compact area was lit with brilliant colours throughout the attack. Smoke bursting through the clouds eventually rose 20,000 feet.

Reports suggest that the enemy fighters were never really able to concentrate over Berlin even by th? end of the attack. A Mosquito reconnoitred Berlin two hours after the last heavy bomber left. The glow in the clouds was seen well over 100 miles away as the pilot approached the city.

Right over Berlin he saw a great ring of fire miles in diameter, and other big fires south-west outside the circle.

The 12,000 tons of bombs which Berlin has received this year is the heaviest total load dropped on any target in Germany during 1943. About 10,000 tons have fallen on Hamburg. 8000 tons on Essen, Hanover and Cologne, and '7OOO tons on Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. But it cannot yet be said that Berlin has been "Hamburged,” says an R.A.F. commentator. Berlin, which is a vaster target than any other in Germany, requires a far greater weight, than Hamburg. Also, Berlin is a far greater distance from Britain and the difficulties of reaching the target go up on a sharply ascending curve according to the time an aircraft spends over heavily defended areas. It has been gratifying that the attacks on Berlin this month have not exacted the price which such a target normally demands.—B.O.W. VIRTUALLY CUT OFF CORDON AROUND BERLIN Recd. 7 p.m. London, Nov. 24. With many of its railway stations smashed and with its telephone system in confusion, Berlin is now virtually cut off from the rest of Germany. Some reports say that while the city blazes fiercely the police have thrown a cordon around it to keep back people who are desperately trying tr leave for the country. Travellers arriving in Stockholm say the people of Berlin- feel that, like Hamburg, their city is doomed. Every able-bodied adult is being pressed into service to light the flames, and even children are being conscripted. The thick smoke caused by the R.A.F.’s incendiary bombs, mixed with the smoke and ashes of hundreds of fires, has covered much of the city, and it is hardly possible to see much more than a few yards. Reports have com-e in of the damage before last night’s raid. The place where Mussolini stayed in 1936 is a mass of ruins. The Reich Chancellery has been severely damaged, and the famous balcony on which Hitler used to be "heiled” has disappeared. Many big factories have been gutted, including some electrical plants. Berlin is by far the most imporan manufacturing centre for electrical equipment in Germany. A very great deal of it is used by the Luftwaffe.

MILITARY EVENT IMPORTANCE OF ATTACK Recd. 6 p.m. London, Nov. 24. ’fl;e flood of reports detailing the widespread damage caused in the raid on Berlin on Monday night is still pouring in after the R.A.F.’s second blitz last night. The Exchange Telegraph agency’s Zurich correspondent, quoting the Neue Zurcher Zeitung’s military commentator, says: "Monday night’s raid must be considered a military event of far-reaching importance. Berlin is definitely seriously devastated, and certain districts are extensively damaged. "The Berlin official version makes it clear that the population suffered heavy casualties.’' 1 The British United Press correspondent in Stockholm says that according to a young Swede whose eye-witness account appeared in the Svenska Dagbladet, whole parts of Berlin were literally swept off the face of the earth. It could hardly be expected that last night's attack on Berlin would be on the same scale as Monday night’s: nevertheless, it was most substantial, says the Press Association’s aviation correspondent. The indications are that it at least equalled the raid on the night of November 18, in which' 350 “blockbusters,” each weighing 40001 b., were dropped on the city. A message from Zurich states that Gauleiter Kaufmann reported that so far it has not been possible to recover bodies which were buried under the debris after the R.A.F. raids or Hamburg in July and August.