GERMANS’ FANTASY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 226, 21 June 1944, Page 5

GERMANS’ FANTASY

Orgy Of Reports Of Fire And Panic LONDON MAIN TARGET LONDON, June 19. The German propaganda about the pilotless aircraft broke all records today. It ■ was declared that the first refugees from England had arrived on the French and Belgian coasts. “There are plenty of people arriving on the French coast, but they are not refugees,” remarked a London radio commentator. Continuing its fictitious accounts ot the damage and panie caused by the planes, the German news agency quotes the pilot of a reconnaissance plane which flew over London as saying: “The whole city was ablaze, fires burning everywhere anil shooting up like mushrooms. Never before has the world seen such a sight. Long after we crossed over northern France on the homeward journey the fires of London could be seen. Some of the original fires were still burning, after 80 hours.” , The German flying bomb propaganda is already running into serious trouble, says the “Daily Mail's” Stockholm correspondent. Delirious optimism is sweeping Germany. Swedish correspondents in Berlin report that numbers of Germans believe Germany will win the war in a few weeks. There is evidence that the leaders see peril in this jubilation, but the propaganda machine appears to be out of control. As soon as one speaker is rushed to the microphone to warn the people that this weapon itself will not win the war, another comes on w.itß stories of the roads from London being black with refugees, the London antiaircraft guns being without ammunition, and the Allies in Normandy being cut off from their home bases. “Cheap Sneers Finished.” Berlin radio declared: “Whatever success the enemy may achieve in combating this new and devastating missile, he may rest assured that other even more terrible secret' weapons are ready for use. The appearance of the new secret weapon against England has filled the German people with delight. The widespread scepticism about unfulfilled promises and the continual reproaches, ■ moans, and cheaps sneers are at last finished with.” A special German communique states: “Heavy and harassing fire against the London area continued without pause yesterday and last night.” A German radio commentator said that London is being singled out for destruction by the new weapon “because it is the technical heart of the invasion preparations.”

Paris radio’s commentator, Jean I’llquis, today dismissed the Normandy. Italian, and Russian fronts as secondary. "All attention is now turned on London,” he said.

Paris radio stated that the points from which the robots are launched have been named after bombed German cities, including Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Kassel. Apart from London, the ports of Plymouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, Weymouth, the Isle of Wight, Brighton, Littlehampton, Hastings, Folkestone, Dover, Margate, and. Gravesend have been subjected to bombardment from the new German missile.