Daily Post - 23.12.1943, Blaðsíða 3

D AIL Y POST
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“Berlimination”
News From
A great city of 4,000,00 peop-
1° eannot be' knoeked out in a
cTay a weék any more than
London (8,000,000), or even
Hamburg (1,500,00). Yet after
i fíve nights of concentrated
raiding íast month, in which
5,0ö0 tcns oí bombs wTere drcp-
ped. Berlin was obviously be-
ing Berlinminated.
True measure of Berlin’s
plight could nct be judged by
the hcllcw-cheéked, redeyed
travellers, wrho, metaphorically
still exháiling the hot air of the
burning capital, arrived by
plane in Sweden, to whisper
wild tales into the ears of wait-
ing newspaper correspondents,
but by hard facts. It was im-
possible to phone the city (ex-
cept cne line via Iiamburg).
The principal radio stations
broadcast intermittently with
audible technical difficulties.
Josef Goebbels went on the air
one night after an hour’s si-
lence to tell overseas listeners
only. “Our determination can-
not be broken by terror.”
More telling than Stock-
hohn and Berne news sources, >
which vied in naming the high-
est casualty figures, like buyers
at an auction, were the sober
reports of R.A.F. pilots, who i
told of greiat fires and explo-
sions they had seen. Modest
losses were suffered by the
í'aiders: 32 o nthe first night,
20 on the second, four on the
third and fourth (Mosquito
raids), 32 o nthe fifth.
Trains from the interior rea-
ched the Reich’s frontiers
many hours late. The nerve-
centre of Germany was not
functioning.
Claimed travellers reashing
the safety of neutral capitals:
Berlin’s anti-aircraft defen-
ces were deceived on the first
night by a 'light Mosquito raid.
When it was over and the de- j
fenders settled down to what i
they imagined would be a quiet
night, the real thing came.
Hitler’s Chancellery was
heavily damaged, the balcony
from chich the Fuehrer often
fired the mob nipped off.
The Fuehrer himself, caught
at a conference with Munitions
Minister Albert Speer, dived
into a shelter, sneaked out of
Berlin by car next morning.
Joachim von Ribbentrop’s
Foreigh Office was wrecked.
“Ri'b” himseif wás seen next
day, tin-hatted, supervising the
evacuation ofimportant docu-
ments in armoured cars.
Goering’s Air Ministry was
heavily damaged. Smashed
were Josef Goebbel’s Propa-
ganda Ministry and heathen
philosopher Alíred Rosenberg’s
Ministry of Eastern Affairs. —
From the shambles of Berlin’s
official cpaarters, Ministries and
Government Departments eva-
cuated to other parts of the
Reich.
On the second night, while light
rain spluttered on the hissing
flames of the Wilhelmstrasse
and Unter den Linden districts,
armed guards equipped with
gasmasks against the suffocat-
ing smoke gave up the struggle,
left whole blocks to bíirn out.
Bears from block-busted Ber-
lin Zoo padded down Unter den
Linden. Troops with machine-
guns hunted roaming leopards,
tigers and lions. One woman
met an elephant, which was “as
surprised as she was.”
S.S. Guards cordoned off the
workers’ quarter near A.lexand-
erplatz, perhaps to keep peoplfe
from the burning Police Presi-
dency, perhaps to prevent fac-
tory workers bolting from Ber-
lin.
Yorkstrasse railway station
v/as completely destroyed; five
others, Stettiner, Postdamer,
Lehrter, Friedrichstrasse, and
Charlottenburg severely damag-
ecl.
Several peacetime embassy
buildings, including those of
Britain and the U.S.A., were
demolished. The Swedish Em-
bassy was destroyed—the Swed
es said it, and they knew.
“The Berlin we know,” said
one refugee in Stockholm, “has
simply ceased to exist. The Bri
tish are out to wipe the Ger-
man capital off the map; no do-
ubt they will succeed.”
The Nazis bewailed the loss
of “irreplacce^fale historic ani
ultural buildings,” great dam-
age to residential quarters, he-
avy loss of life (they did not
wail when bombs fell on War-
saw, Rotterdam, London).
IJeavily damaged were the su •
burbs: Spandau (engineering
works), Charlottenburg (preci-
sion instrument factories), Wi3-
mersdorf, with its smug, wealt-
hy mansions.
Tíie water supply broke
down. Sootcovered plane trav-
ellers arriving at Malmoe,
Sweden, gasped: “We had not
time to wash off the ashes. And
if we could have found time wfe
ould not have found water.”
It was Berliners’ turn to car-
ry bundles and wheel hand-
carts. Tens of thousands of pe-
ople moved out of the city, bo-
und for small towns, súch as
Postdam, Strausberg, and Fuer-
stenwalde.
Theatres and department
stores were burnt out. Daily
Press conferences eased.
Defences seemed weaker,
particularly on the second and
later days. Flak was not as in-
tense as usual. Even German
man fighters were not especi-
ally active, though they laid
lanes of flares above those plac-
ed by the Allied Pathfinders, in
what seemed at times a battle
of coloured lights. The Germans
seemed short of fighters. An old
Focke-Wulf four-engined recon-
naissance plane lumbered pond
erously into battle, only to van-
ish when attacked by speedier
Allied craft.
In three days Berlin became
the world’s most-bombed city,
outstripping Hamburg, which
held the record with more than
10,000 tons of bombs. Cautious-
ly a commentator warned pe-
ople not to expect Berlin to be
easily eliminated.
Even Hamburg, only one-
quarter the size of the capital,
as patched up after the great
raids of the Summer, is now
more or less functioning as a
city. But the R.A.F. was ob-
viously not expecting to “wipe
out” Berlin. Even to stun, for
a time, the nevre-centre of the
Reich would seriously affect
the whole German war effort
at a critical time.
The effect would be tem-
porary, but it might put some
Germans in a receptive mood
for a well-timed Allied call to
quit.
Snarled the Deutsche Alle-
gemeine Zeitung: “With clen-
ched teeth and bitter hatred
against the enemy the people
of Berlin are carrying out their
duty fully conscious that they
are contributing to victory—
victor which lies ahead.”
German officials were mean-
while said to have admitted
America
NEW YORK: Gen. Henry
“Hap” Arnold, Commander of
the United States Army Air
Forces, has been awarded the
Collier’s Weekly annual trophy
for “the greatest achievement
in the field of American avia-
tion.” The presentation carried
recognition of Arnold’s efforts
to build the Army Air Forces
into “the world’s biggest and
most formidable aerial mach-
ine.” The award was made to
General Arnold last week-end
at a Wellington dinner honor-
ing Orville Wright on the 40th
anniversary of his lst aircraft
flight. Gen. Arnold had the
Wright Brothers as his teachers
when he learned to fly in the
year 1911, the year the trophy
was established by Robert F.
F. Collier, son of the founder of
Collier’s Magazine. Gen. Arnold
is a native of Pennsylvania and
has favored air power since he
championed the cause of the
late Gen. Billy Mitchell in 1925.
❖ * ❖ *
WASHIN GTON: President
Roosevelt signed the bill repeal-
ing the Chinese Exlusion Act
last week. The law was passed
by Congress as a gesture of good
will toward the Chinese. Under
the law 105 Chinese will be
able to enter he country each
year and will have full natura-
lization rights.
* * *
WASHIN GT ON: Congress
voted to adjourn and remain in
adjournment until January lOth
after clearing up most of the
pressing legislation on the ag-
enda. The subsidy issue is still
unsettled, but legisation extend-
ing subsidy payments until Feb.
17 was sent to the White House
along with a 2-hundred million
dollar appropriation bill.
that a quarter of Berlin had
been wiped out. Said a Swedish
eyewitness: “Nobody works,
washes or shaves. The city
looks like a gigantic criminals’
colony.”
Few hours later R.A.F. Mos-
quitoes were over Berlin again,
and a heavy force of Lancasters
slammed Frankfurt. By day-
light U.S. Eighth Air Force
bombers raided N.W. Germany
and the Calais area.