BERLIN DEVASTATED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 March 1943, Page 4

BERLIN DEVASTATED

IN LATEST ALLIED/ AIR ATTACK GLOOMY GERMAN TALK. ADMISSIONS OF ALLIED STRENGTH. (By Telegraph—-Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON. March 4. All reports from Europe indicate ' that the destruction suffered by Berlin as a result of the latest R.A.F. attack was the heaviest of the war. Messages released by the German censors state that Berlin is devastated, without gas, water or electricity and with thousands of homeless people seeking guidance and help from the authorities. Every able-bodied individual in the city has been ordered to help in clearing up the wreckage. The Axis Hungarian telegraphic agency said cattle stampeded from a bombed abattoir and the crazed beasts plunged wildly in all directions through the streets, silhouetted in the light of a hundred fires. Other correspondents state that the windows of .Goering’s Air Ministry were smashed; /also that fires were so great and widespread that the fire brigade was helpless. It would be wrong even to suggest that the average man in the street in London reads the details with any glee —nobody who has experienced severe raids finds any reasons for glee in them—but it is generally realised that, in addition to the weakening of Germany’s war effort, this is the only way to bring home to the Germans that war, like crime, does not pay in the long run. Still less is there much sympathy felt for the Germans when their raids on Rotterdam. Belgrade, Coventry and London are remembered. The effect on the Germans of these continuing raids will be watched with interest. One or two. significant comments have recently been 'made by Hans Schwarz von Berg, who is a Berlin Propaganda Ministry official. He warned Germans against under-estimating the enemy. “We know,” he said, “that Britain is standing on her hind legs. We know the huge United States output in shipyards and for the fronts and that the Soviet is a most erudite pupil in the art of warfare. The German nation is suffering in the present war more than in any previous wars.” A Goebbels spokesman, broadcasting, said: “Thus far, the British have done nothing spectacular in this war, but now they are rolling up their sleeves. The enemy’s production makes it necessary that we give every ounce of our strength to production.” The spokesman said this explained why German juveniles were manning antiaircraft guns.