NIGHT OF TERROR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1943, Page 4

NIGHT OF TERROR

DESCRIBED BY GERMANS HORRORS OF LATEST RAID ON COLOGNE. EXPERIENCE A “COMPLETE SURPRISE” (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, June 29. German sources describe last night’s attack against -Cologne as a terror raid. The Berlin radio quoted the German High Command’s report that, "during the latest British terror attack against Cologne, high explosives and also tens of thousands of incendiaries

were dropped, entirely at random, over the town. “Cultural monuments destroyed.” the report adds, “include the Town Hall. State House and the Guerzenich Hall, dating from mediaeval times. The Cologne Cathedral was seriously dam- - aged. Heavy bombs crashed through the dome and exploded in the interior, causing heavy destruction. The left aisle is destroyed; so is the marvellous organ and the baptistry. Parts of the cupola collapsed.” The radio added: “The Gothic towers of the cathedral today are rising to the sky as a writing on the wall for the criminals responsible for all this terror.” A report received from Stockholm says a railway station in Cologne, situated near the cathedral, is believed to have been hit. It was Cologne’s 117th raid.

Neutral observers join the Germans in emphasising the devastation the R.A.F. has caused in the Ruhr. The Swedish newspaper “Goteborg Posten” described the Ruhr as a sea of flame and said Germany’s arsenal has been pulverised: the life has been 'hammered out of it. The Berlin radio speaks of scenes of indescribable horror, and says that when a city is in flames, pavements become so hot that the asphalt melts and people are burned to death while trying to extricate themselves. Thousands died from the most painful wounds caused by liquid phosphorous. A radio commentator said: “Germany never expected Allied mass raids. These concentrated attacks against the Ruhr came as a complete surprise to Germany.” An eyewitness, broadcasting from an unnamed Western German town after yesternight’s raids, said: “Following on the night attack, civil defence organisations, joined by soldiers from all units stationed there, are still fighting the raging fires. I see a picture of horror and destruction. Whole districts are nothing but smouldering ruins.”

The Berlin radio said that when the attack on Cologne’ ended, the population left their shelters and saw whole districts, particularly houses, turned into rubble and debris. “Only those who have experienced such a night'of terror know how much there is to do and how much help is needed,'-’ the radio added. A new appeal followed to the whole German people for help for those who had suffered in the Cologne raid. Another commentator said: “We see exhausted and broken down people who aged years last night. Entire streets were torn up. House walls are crushed and gaping. • showing the wrecked interiors. There are entire blocks of such houses, with people sill buried under heaps of debris. Entire districts have been turned into smoking ruins. People are sitting in the streets, some on suitcases, staring at the few belongings they were able to salvage. The Germans are attempting to show Germany’s “peace-mindedness.” They are dropping leaflets in Russia urging the Soviet authorities to evacuate women and children from target towns,' which they are only bombing because the British and Americans are making “barbarious raids against Germany.”