AIR RAID FEARS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1943, Page 3

AIR RAID FEARS

BECOMING MORE ACUTE IN GERMANY NEAR APPROACH TO PANIC IN BERLIN. EXPECTATIONS OF SHARING FATE OF HAMBURG. LONDON, August 1. Throughout the ■weekend an atmosphere bordering on panic prevailed in Berlin, where, according Io reports from eye witnesses. Hie people, fear that their city will be the next target for a British .and American air blitz similar to that which has reduced Hamburg to smouldering rubble.

The “Daily Telegraph's"’ Stockholm correspondent says that this fear sent Berliners early on Saturday and yesterday; digging shelters in parks and squares and also family shelters in gardens and backyards, just as the Londoners in the desperate days of preparation in 1939. An official proclamation which was published in Berlin yesterday did little co allay the anxiety. It reminded the people that Berlin might suffer the fate of Hamburg, Cologne, and Essen, and it urged the citizens to. “mobilise all your spiritual strength.” One Swedish correspondent says it would be impossible to conceal the shattering effects of the air war, with “trainloads of homeless and wounded arriving in Berlin every day.” These people are telling tales of unparalleled horror. The authorities estimate that 14,000 persons lost their lives in Hamburg during the Allied attacks. Four hundred thousand out of Hamburg’s population of 1,250.000 have fled. The Gorman authorities have ordered the evacuation of all school children and non-essential adults from Berlin, the “New York Times’’ Stockholm correspondent says. Leaflets which were dropped in Berlin mail-boxes urged all persons not engaged in the war effort, particularly women, children and elderly people, to prepare to leave Berlin at the earliest possible moment for special evacuee centres, where food, blankets and other essentials have been stored. All travel expenses will be paid by the Government, The devastation dealt in Hamburg is reported to have inspired the authorities’ action. The “Voelkischer Beobachter” said that the evacuation order will not fall on deaf ears, and it added that Hamburg had gone through hell and sheer torture.