BOMBING OF BERLIN

Evening Star, Issue 23693, 28 September 1940, Page 15

BOMBING OF BERLIN

IMPORTANT TARGETS ATTACKED SURROUNDED BY OVER-CROWDED LIVING CENTRES (AVritten for the ‘ Evening Star.’ Last Saturday this paper published a map of Berlin for the benefit of readers in following up the activities of the iR.A.F. over Nazi Germany’s capital. Some readers will have preserved their copies. A look at the map shows how nearly all the important targets are closely surrounded by overcrowded living centres. This is far more the case with Berlin than it is with London. In the former city it is common, especially in the workers’ districts, to find four and five stories of flats, each witli as many as four similar ones behind and with small hack yards in between. Some such blocks will accommodate between 20 and 50 families, with sometimes 400 to 500 persons—children, men, and Women. These streets arc on the average separated from important military targets, like the big armament-producing plants, the Borsig works. Locwo factories, Sclnvartzkopf, A.E.G., and Osram in the north and north-east, and in the cast Knorr Bromso (comparable with Westinghonso), another big Osram factory, and the big power station, Klingenberg. In the latest raid, the longest Berlin has suffered, the attack against the Klingcnbcrg power station, lasting more than one hour, seems to have been the outstanding feature. These attacks must hamper considerably mast of the numerous industrial plants depending on Klingenberg for their power supplies, and must be appreciably interfering with the output of German war supplies. The raid directly preceding this attack must, have caused considerable damage, judging hv the reactions of the Genuau officials, especially the Goebb'rls folk, 'flic slightest injury makes the Nazis cry tremendously. These harmless Nazis, with the best intentions for everyone, are the persecuted ones, trying to make the world believe, they arc innocent and misunderstood. Besides

being of undoubted military importance, the British raids on Berlin must have a great psychological effect. The weapon which the Nazis have developed with such care is now being turned against themselves. For more than a hundred years an important section of the German people has never had a taste of war damage. Now they are feeling the horrors of modern warfare which they have inflicted on other countries.

Berlin, including its suburbs, is inhabited by between four and ''five million people. It is full of industrial plants of importance, and is also important as a railway centre. Not so well known is the fact that it is an important inland harbour, with wellbuilt and elaborate canal systems in conjunction vfith existing small rivers, and lakes some distance away. The traffic is carried- on by barges of from 20 to 60 tons. There are some good harbour basins in the Berlin area, of special importance to the coal supply of the capital. To the attacking JI.A.F. the system of waterways and lakes is easily picked out, and damage inflicted on them must seriously inter-fere-with the output of various centres The Nazis expected Berlin to bo safe from air attacks, and for some years have considerably increased the number of factories in'the vicinity of the city. Some miles to the east of the city are the enormous Hermann Goering works for aeroplane production. GOEBBELS’S FAIRY TALES. It will become increasingly difficult for Goebbels to tell fairy tales about the ineffectiveness of the raids of the iI.A.F. The average Berlin worker dislikes to be fooled. The workers have to move about a good deal in getting to their places of employment, and they must see evidence of the damage caused. Before the war the Berlin workers were not too confident about the reliability of the official news from the Goebbels headquarters, and when they find they are being fooled there will be trouble. The mind of the Briton is more balanced than that of the German, and he is more determined and more steadfast in gain and iu loss. As tbo British raids become more regular there will be an opportunity for the opponents of the Nazis. They will take advantage of the turmoil*and disorganisation by distributing anti-Nazi propaganda material. What the Geimans call indiscriminate bombing is nothing else than near misses of military objects, and very near ones indeed. In the case of a returned soldiers' settlement for which they have been shedding tears, the front row of the houses of that settlement is separated from the Central Aerodrome at Tempelhof and its main buildings by only a fairly broad road, say, not more than a hundred yards. In the case of another “ pet ” target of the 11.A.F., the distance separating long rows of fiats from it is only about 50yds. 'Then there are the gasworks that have been mentioned several times, extending over an area of about three-quarters of a square mile, with several enormous brick-built gas reservoirs and installations for utilising chemical waste. Even in peace time people living in the adjoining streets were always in fear that one of the reservoirs might explode. Further, most of Berlin’s buses get their compressed coal gas from the works, the vehicles having been converted from petrol to coal gas for driving power as far back as 1936. TRAINING STATION. Roughly 40 miles to the south of Tempelhof Aerodrome, at the main south railway line to Dresden and Leipzig, another military target has been selected, the station llnngsdorf, the centre of military training places like Zossen, Wuensdorf. and Kummersdorf for the artillery and tank forces, besides enormous military stores and depots. Near Rangsdorf are some military aerodromes, and at the nearby lake a seaplane base is situated. From the account- of recent raids it is not difficult to estimate the military and moral value of the work of tbo 11.A.F. ovei Berlin. The crews are obviously well acquainted with the positions of"their targets, and any damage to civilians is solely due to unavoidable near-misses The psychological effect of the bombing upon the German people will prove very great indeed.