FEARS IN GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1943, Page 3

FEARS IN GERMANY

R.A.F. HAS BECOME TERRIBLE WEAPON MORALE OF PEOPLE UNDERMINED BY YEARS OF HARDSHIP & NERVE STRAIN. £ DEVASTATING EFFECT OF RAIDS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, January 15. “The Germans realise that the R.A.F. has become a terrible weapon,” said a Swedish journalist, Erik Lindquist, who was the Berlin correspondent of the Social Demokraten” from November, 1940, to June, 1942. ; Interviewed in London, he said further that a real news service from Germany was impossible. Facts were concealed from journalists, who wlere IwJorking under a continuous threat of expulsion. There were constant complaints about the contents of dispatches. The German people, he added, are worn out by war work and insufficient food. The country is completely isolated. Germans no longer bother to read the newspapers or listen to the radio. Their private life is controlled to an extent which people in democratic countries cannot envisage. Every house is watched. What really happens in war becomes known to the Germans only slowly and partially: nevertheless it is 1 impossible for the German leaders to prevent three things gradually and fundamentally influencing opinion—firstly, the Russian campaign; secondly, the deterioration of living conditions thirdly, British air raids. Big losses on the Eastern front had made themselves felt everywhere, Mr Lindquist said. Trainload after trainload of wounded soldiers arrived and there was hardly a family without a member killed or wounded. The Germans became anxious about British raids last spring, when the R.A.F. started its thousand bomber raids. The material effect on Kiel, Rostock, Bremen. Cologne and the Ruhr district was devastating. For instance only one-quarter of Rostock remained. Those who were evacuated from bombed centres carried their fears with them and infected other districts. Berlin expected her share at any moment. Constant alerts, day and night, had a definitely bad effect on morale. The Germans were not too well equipped to resist air raids. Their nerwes were strained to the utmost by years of hardship and nervous pressure. Emphasising Hitler’s personal power, Mr Lindquist said the idea still pre vailed that the Fuehrer could not make mistakes. Others were blamed when things went wrong. When Hitler dismissed generals, his action was applauded. Germans had come more and more to doubt the final outcome. “There isn’t the slightest entnusiasm left for the war,” said Mr Lindquist, “but the Germans are still determined to carry on as best they can. This gives Goebbels a very strong propaganda point. He daily tells his public what horrors can be expected should Germany lose. The public, therefore, carries on and the German war machine undoubtedly is still very powerful ” Spmming up, Mr Lindqust said: “I would describe the Germans as gloomy, strained and disappointed, but still determined to fight.”