BLOW AT CIVILIANS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1940, Page 7

BLOW AT CIVILIANS

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

British Official Wireless.

1 1 - REASON OF NAZI TACTICS THOUGHT WEAKEST POINT

Rugby, Sept. 15. Both in the Press and among the general public the latest phase in the battle for Britain — the savage attack on the people of London — is the subject of much speculation about both its purpose and the reason it has been adopted by the German authorities. A number of conclusions are generally reached. First, the new tactics of scattering bombs indiscriminately over the metropolis, which no one can imagine to be an important target in a purely military sxjise, is taken to be a confession of fkilure on the part of the Luftwaffe to do substantial damage to the main centres of Britain's war production, to be a confession that the attacks which have been attempted ori' Britain's military targets have been too costly, and that the German air force is beginning to feel the strain of such heavy losses. Centre of the Nation. Second, having lamentably failed to inflict serious damage to Britain's war machine, Germany has now turned the force of her attack against what she hopes will prove Britain's weakest point, namely, the civilian morale. At the same time London is the centre of communications, the centre of political life, and is representative of the nation in a way which is true of the capital of no other country. By destroying London the Nazis might well hope that the rest of the country would be paralysed and the way for invasion would be rendered easy. But the morale of London is so far untouched and everywhere the opinion is confidently ■ expressed that it will require bombing on a scale vastly more widespread and more intense before the | nerve of Londoners can be crushed on a | scale which the London defences will j never permit the Nazis to achieve without, inflicting terrible losses. Many Different Weapons. Many different weapons have been brought to the defence of London against the congtant night raiders. There are night-flying fighters of which informed correspondents suggest a superior new type is already in production, antiaircraft guns capable of putting up a formidable barrage of steel, and there are searchlights and barrage balloons of an improved new type which have already claimed one victim. Damage to London certainly has been done and much sufferin«: has been caused. Many of her prominent buildings which form the chief target for the Nazi bombs have been damaged. These include a dozen famous old churches, St. Paul's churchyard, the House of Lords, Buckingham Palace (three times hit), the Law Cou^ts, Somerset House, three of the largest hospitals and a number of smaller ones and two newspaper offices. "About 2000 of London's civilian population have been killed and many more injured or rendered homeless, yet the general life of the capital proceeds uninterrupted and the capacity of the people to adapt themselves to the new mode of life is astonishing. Confidence is widespread in the power of Britain to defeat this last as she has defeated former methods of Nazi attacks.