BOMBING CIVILIANS

Evening Star, Issue 23697, 3 October 1940, Page 9

BOMBING CIVILIANS

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE GERMANS PILOT’S CONFESSION LONDON, October 2. (Received October 3, at 9,25 a.m.) The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press has circulated the confessions and impressions of a German pilot who bombed London homes. The pilot, who is a university graduate, when asked what it feels like to drop a high explosive on a closely-crowded suburb, replied: “ One must not think of one’s task in terms of humans. Ho must consider it purely a military command he has got to carry out. The actual discharge of a bomb brings relief from the strain that has become almost unbearable. I mutter ‘ thank God that’s over ’ as I give the bomb release signal. We are facing death night after night. Searchlights have us pincered and we narrowly escape entanglement in the balloon barrages and anti-aircraft fire. There is another factor. Letters from our families tell of nights spent in raid shelters and ask when this accursed war is ending. Then, proceeding to London we switch on the radio and hear the gayest music from the 8.8. C. It makes us mad to think that these English have the nerve to play jolly tunes as though nothing was happening. 1 drop bombs and feel that the best way to end the war is to cause as much destruction as possible. I feel relaxed when 1 see a crater or the leap of flames.” SHIPPING LOSSES INCREASE LAST MONTH U-BOATS’ INTENSIFIED ACTIVITY LONDON, October 2. (Received October 3, at 11.10 a.m.) Nearly three times the average of Britain’s shipping losses was suffered during the week ended September 22-23 —the highest since the outbreak of war. The losses were principally due to U-boats’ intensified activity before the arrival of the United States destroyers. BRITISH RAIDS SHOCK FOR GERMAN PEOPLE LONDON, October 2. A Stockholm report states that adults, in addition to children, are participating in a limited exodus from the north-west and north-east quarters of Berlin, which are most exposed to British bombs. The nerves of the residents of the north-west suburbs are badly shaken. Many of the people of Berlin have evacuated their families to health resorts, which are crowded throughout Germany. The evacuation of children was begun on September 1, and is entirely due to the R.A.F. raids, which have caused a sensation among the public. CONSCIENTIOUS MINISTER MR MACDONALD RUNS GAUNTLET OF AIR RAIDS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 1. Fifteen times in three weeks the Minister for Health, Mr Malcolm Macdonald, has run the gauntlet of air raids. He usually visits the control centre first to see the officials atj, their posts and then goes to A.R.P. posts, shelters, and food and rest centres for the homeless. One night he was close to a church that was bombed. Another night he was in the midst of falling incendiary bombs, and on another night he got out at every station along the tube railway to see the conditions for himself.