NERVOUS DREAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1940, Page 5

NERVOUS DREAD

INCREASING IN GERMANY UNDER R.A.F. HAMMERING. REARRANGEMENT OF BERLIN DEFENCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 5. Reports from various sources indicate that the hammering that is being given by the R.A.F. to Germany is disillusioning the population about Marshal > Goering’s boast of the country’s invulnerability. A Bucharest message says a Rumanian visitor to Leipzig stated that the autumn fair has been a complete failure because of the British air raids. The fair closed two days early, and many visitors cut their stay short because they had been having sleepless nights. The Berlin correspondent of the Swedish newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” reports that the population of Berlin are in an extremely nervous condition; they stay awake for long hours expecting raids. A promise by the Government of an extra coffee ration as a stimulant is most welcome because the Berliners have for long been short of coffee.

A dispatch from Zurich, Switzerland, says many more anti-aircraft batteries have been established in Berlin, Madgeburg and Leipzig, and the German Press assures the people that British planes will henceforth be prevented from reaching Berlin. “The Times” says that a German news agency statement that the Berlin anti-aircraft defences have been rearranged, “thus baffling the enemy,” is very significant’ viewed alongside the recent assertion by the German High Command that the anti-aircraft defences are so effective that they have prevented R.A.F. bombers from reaching their objectives. The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says that an air raid which began shortly after midnight last night sent Berlin residents scurrying to their cellars and shelters, where they remained for two hours. British bombers could be heard flying over the capital amid terrific anti-aircraft fire.

An air expert described the R.A.F. bombing of German armament works concealed in forests, as “a perfect mass bombing operation which may have a pronounced psychological effect on the German people.”