EFFECT OF RAIDS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21204, 29 August 1940, Page 8

EFFECT OF RAIDS

NAZIS* CHANGED TACTICS BRITAIN “CARRIES ON” (Omclal Wireless) (Received August 29, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, August 28 The change in the Nazi tactics in regard to air attacks on Britain and the effects which these raids are having are subjects of further comment in today’s press. The Times says: “The German night raids appear designed to interfere at little cost to themselves with the repose of day workers and the production of night shifts.” The Times pays tribute to the London underground railway service for giving an example of the necessary continuation of vital services during air raids, and adds: “As regards the psychological effect of these raids it will not, as is shown by the civilian population’s behaviour so far, be seen in any loss of nerve.” The Daily Telegraph says: “Germany and her rulers were shown in 1917-18 the different effects of night raids upon the German and upon the British morale. It appears that Nazism has now no choice but to risk a repetition of that deadly lesson. While Nazi planes hover to and fro over the suburbs for hours, British bombers are blowing up the factories, oil stores, communications and aerodromes to which Nazidom owes its power of aggression. “The structure of Hitler's Reich is being steadily weakened as the strokes fall on the great centres of armaments production from the Ruhr to Berlin and Dessau, from Ludwigshafen and Stuttgart to Leuna and Leipzig, whereas the results of the German night raids on Britain are small and the military effect negligible. “Fascism is receiving a share of the deadly British offensive attacks on industrial North Italy, representing a true strategic use of the Air Arm.” Opinion of Americans The change in Nazi tactics is also noted by American observers, and one radio commentator drew the following inference: "The mass daylight raids of last week were far less successful than the Germans claimed, otherwise why were they not continued?” At the same time the reaction of

i - practically all American correspondents in Britain to Monday night’s j prolonged air raid alarm in London | is that the Nazis’ sole object was to • make as great a nuisance of themselves as possible.