GERMAN OUTLOOK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 52, 25 February 1944, Page 3

GERMAN OUTLOOK

reaction TO BOMBING

MR TAITUHA'S IMPRESSIONS

The following article, -written by Mr H. Taituha, appeared in a recent issue of the. Auckland Weekly News. M.r Taituha is well known in Te Kuiti as a native interpreter.

In September, 1940, the Germans began to bomb England. From my post along the Kentish coast I watched the planes roar 4 past loaded with bombs. The skies of England were black with tliem.

Shells burst everywhere. Tracer bullets marked the path of thcixliiglit. Looking inland I saw, silhouetting the elm trees upon the skyline, the conflagration of a city. In that city people were dying, bombed and shot, and burned.

The Germans roared on, seeking fresh English cities to destroy. Anti-aircraft guns bellowed after them. But the German planes were too fast and high up. The Germans looked back and laughed.' "Dutch" Courage England was hopelessly outnumbered. The German planes were running ail around her at There was no stopping them. 13ut the people, of England never lost heart. They took the thrashing the German Luftwaffe gave them. They •took it the same as they did the rev treat from Dunkirk, the disaster to France, the treachery of Italy—took It full in the lace,, reeled, and came back for more.

The Germans said it was "dutch" j courage. For days they had tried to jtnock it out of the English, lhey had even dropped time-bombs and mines into back gardens, sent Stukas screaming i'ear into the machine- gunned the: people and lelt their bodies strewn across the streets. But the "duteh" courage of the English stood and held.' I had. left England. The 'Hlutch" courage was .still holding. Ihe Germans were still at them, hammer and tongs. I had eome out East, 3iad seen lighting in Greece, was badly wounded, and captured in April,. 19-11. Flushed with Victory

Fourteen months alter the first bombing of England, November. 39-1.1, I was almost back in England again, only on the opposite side of the North Sea. 1 was in German hands, a prisoner of war.

In a prisoner of war camp I saw tiie. other side of Germany. AVe read the (Icrraan papers. In ease Ave may have missed the news, loudspeakers ■were - installed. Through them German propaganda was dished out to

Changed Outlook

The Russians were a beaten enemy since 1941. Even when the Russians pushed them back in the. KuJjyn. the Germans still called the ltussians. "beaten." ' The Germans bad "beaten" on the brain.

Next Rommel threw up the sponge.. He turned tail and. at Tunisia, ilccl. The Germans abused the ©Italians. They were the lowest people on earth. To hear these scoundrels' denouncing their partners-in-v crime was extraordinary. Then the. Germans, turned and accused the Americans of sacking the art galleries of Italy. They claimed thai works of art Ave re taken. out of I-taly and sent back to America. Near the historic town of Flatz stood an internment camp. It was full of. Germans —military - offenders, deserters, conscientious objectors. It was better to accept the illtreatment and priAatrbn of an internment camp than the sure bullet of the enemv.

Longing for Food' The German press printed screeds and screeds of red-hot propaganda—• ''English food line in the Atlantic cut off," "India declares war on Britain," "Americans chased by the Japs." The people took them all in and then sighed,. "Food." A German •would....sell his kingdom for a bar of chocolate. Food was terribly short. JSlack bread, soup and mint tea -without sugar was a good meal. The Germans often went to the French working parties to try to induce the French to fight for Germany. Tile French merely laughed and swore at them. Yugoslavia worried the Germans. Food, trains passed through were derailed by the the food taken, and the train wrecked.

The second front had, the Germans puzzled. They tried to buy Britain out. Every commando raid and landing made on Fortress Europe the Germans called, a second front. They wanted Britain to affirm or deny. But Britain kept silent. It annoyed the Germnns^^^

Morale Cracks Since the fall of Tunisia Germany's star began to decline, the Germans became irritable, unstable. Ministries shuffled and- reshuffled, generals began to die suddenly. the people became apprehensive. r l he King of Rumania died of! a sudden illness. Germany began to lose its; bland arrogance. It needed just a tiny crack to strip away the lalsie confidence. The crack came when Hamburg and other cities were bombed. The Germans came out in their true colours. Thev squealed! 1 could hardly believe my own eyes as I looked at the papers. A mighty nation, before whose fist the whole world stood a-trembling, reduced to cheap squealing. in the newspapers the Germans called upon their fellow-men to walk down the ruined streets of Hamburg, and in the early hours ol' the morning, with the sun shining down upon bodies ol their dead kin, to know that Britain did it.

Breeding Hatred The Germans called upon their l'ellow-men to behold the scene of destruction and desolation, to ieel to wind howl the dead city, to see the halls built to the glories of their forefathers smouldering oil the ground and among the avrecks, of German homes, to see the bodies of German women and chiUlicn dead in blood.

"Blood!"' screamed one paper. I'or every German's blood spilt the cursed "1-Cnglander" would pay a thousand times more. What had Germany done to deserve such brutality? Look at the rows upon rows of dead and mutilated humanity— flower of German manhood—victims ol" the most dastardly commit-* ted upon any nation!

A Contrast in; Reaction I Britain thought that bv wrecking the cities of Germany it would put tear into the people and subjugate fhem. Let Britain know it had done the opposite. By her dastardly act Britain had welded the German people into one strong and formidable body, with only one purpose in mind —revenge and utter hatred of the British —hate! hate!

I laid, the paper down and sighed. My thought went back to England who, in her darkest hours, managed to weather the storm by the help of a courage which they called ''dutch/'