SETBACK FOR NAZIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 244, 12 September 1940, Page 7

SETBACK FOR NAZIS

EFFECTS OF R.A.F. RAIDS

CHANGE OF TONE

(United Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 19 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 11

Reuter’s Bucharest correspondent has interviewed a traveller wlio stated that 500 persons have been killed by bombs in Germany.

The traveller declared that German officials had already begun to despair about the issue of the war. Their attitude had altered from extreme cocksureness and arrogance to anxiety and uncertainty. The Berlin radio states that a de-layed-action bomb in the grounds of the United States Embassy cannot be removed. It will destroy-not only the embassy, but other important buildings if it explodes. The police have closed several streets in Berlin because of fear of time bombs.

BERLIN’S BIG RAID. British bombs fell in the heart of Berlin early this morning in what is believed to have been the most intense raid the city has yet undergone. An Air Ministry communique describes the concentrated bombing of the big Potsdam railway station in the centre .of the city, and states that a large fire and other smaller fires were caused on the targets. This station, is one of Germany’s main termini and handles traffic for Magdeburg and SouthWestern Germany.

Agency reports from Berlin state that bombs fell on the famous Berlin boulevard Unter den Linden and neai the Willielmstrasee, where the Reich Chancellery and Foreign Office are situated. The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press of America says the Reichstag, the interior of which was burnt when the Nazis came to power in 1933, was struck by an incendiary bomb during the raid. It is stated that the city was so well lit up by flares that it was . possible to read a newspaper in the light. DIRECT'HITS CLAIMED.

Tho Air Ministry communique on the raid states: “Potsdam station was repeatedly hit with heavy bombs and some 100 incendiary bombs when the Royal Air Force again raided the German capital last night. The raid was made by a force of bombers which delivered the attack with great precision. There was ground-haze over most of the city, but the aircraft located tho target at 12.15 a.m. and began the attack. All the planes which took part claimed direct hits, and fires broke out. One of them was particularly large and there were a number of smaller fires.” BOMB NEAR CHANCELLERY.

The Berlin correspondent of the British United Press says bombs were seen falling in the centre of Berlin during an air-raid alarm which lasted from 11.55 p.m. till 1.47 a.m. One bomb crashed through a house next to the' United States Embassy and only 100 yards from the Wilhelm Platz (a square opposite the Chancellery on the Wilhelmstrasse). An incendiary bomb also fell near the United States Embassy, and two others fell in the middle of Unter den Linden immediately in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The embassy was not damaged. The first bomb lit up the famous gate like daylight; the windows of nearby offices rattled and blue smoke 1 rolled up from Unter den Linden. A high-explosive bomb fell 100 yards from the former French Embassy, sending plumes of smoke and sparks <5 yards. The raiders circled over the centre of the capital at a low altitude for at least 30 minutes and dropped six parachute flares.

An official German communique states that bombs struck tho Art Academy in the heart of the city, tnc premises of the German Engineers Union and Hedwigs Hospital, also residential and business property. It is announced in a British Official Wireless message that last -week the Royal Air Force bombed more than 150 targets in Germany and Germanoccupied territory. They were: German railways. 23: other communications, 31; docks, 17; barge concentrations, 5; canal and river systems, o; ships, 4; power-stations, 6; aerodromes, 44- gun emplacements on the French coast, 5; aircraft works. 6; oil plants, 15; munition works, 12; military objectives hidden in forests, 14.