Sweeps and Swats

For British bombers and fighters this was the ninth successive daylight sweep over northern France. Since the sweeps started early in June, the British had shot down 168 German planes while losing only 68 of their own. Besides, they had attacked many airfields, power stations, railways, bridges. This day was as fair as a day in June can be, and so the sky-sweeps expected to run into plenty of fight. But when they flew back to their bases, they had to confess that for the first time during the sweeps they had not shot down a single "schmitter"--for the simple reason that not a single one had come up to talk bullets.

Air Marshal William Sholto Douglas, chief of the Fighter Command, who invented the sweeps, was not kidding himself about them. He knew that much of the Luftwaffe's best had been withdrawn to tackle the Reds. But meanwhile there was hay to be got in, and he was losing no time getting it.

The sweeps by day were growing; but the swats by night were still what really counted. Two hundred planes a night, they had had far more weight than appeared.

Unlike the British, who talked frankly about air raids on their cities, the Germans have been mum.

More & more accounts agreed that one city at least has been really pulverized: Hamburg. Attacks on that vital city in May gutted the huge shipyards of Blohm & Voss, which in peacetime built the Europa, Majestic, Leviathan, Kungsholm, many other giants, and against war built the Bismarck and many destroyers.* In town the Stock Exchange, the Deutsche Bank, the Industriepalast, the Defaka Department Store, the Carl Schultze Theater were among buildings completely burned or knocked down. One of the principal business streets, Moeckebergstrasse, was once closed to traffic for three days. Civilian casualties have been high: in some cases bursting water mains flooded shelters.

The Germans have gone to great pains to camouflage landmarks--disguising the main railroad station with fake foliage, planking over the Binnen-Alster (a lake-like section of the Alster River).

On the fences built with surprising speed around bombed houses in Hamburg a slogan has recently appeared over & over: Dies alles verdanken wir unserem Fuehrer: "For all this we have our Fuehrer to thank."

* The British claimed they had confirmation last week that the battleship Gneisenau had been bombed and definitely crippled as it lay in the harbor of Brest. That left Germany just two battleships (Tirpitz and Scharnhorst} and one pocket battleship (Lutzow or Admiral Scheer) in operation.

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