Self-Defense

The United Nations as usual had their ears to the ground, hoping to hear shocks and tremors from the direction of Germany.

The straining ears heard things which gave satisfaction. The Bruesseler Zeitung admitted: "Doctor Goebbels has told truths which may come as a surprise to many. But why shouldn't he confess that war has become the shoe which pinches?" Said the Frankfurter Zeitung: "We are only beginning to feel total war in the west. Home has unavoidably become part of the front."

In Switzerland an eyewitness fresh from Germany told the Schweizer Bauzeitung: "Air raids have had a terrible effect. Western Germany just celebrated its 10,000th alert. Recently some towns had alerts 36 nights running. Everywhere you see destroyed houses, while factories show little damage. Factories are repaired immediately after attack, but houses are left in ruins to be rebuilt after the war. Despite all Germany's military successes, there is no trace of confidence among the people. All they want is peace." The German civilian Luftschutz (air defense) organization had changed its name to Selbstschutz (self-defense), was conscripting everyone between 15 and 70 except cripples and pregnant women. Germany's five stongest radio stations--(Berlin, Luxembourg, Stuttgart, Munich and Koenigsberg), constantly used by R.A.F. and Russian bombers to check their bearings, were ordered to stop broadcasting at sunset.

What caused this was not the 1,000-plane-a-night potential with which Anglo-U.S. air power may some day cripple the German war effort. Bomber Commanders Air Marshal Sir Arthur Travers Harris and Major General Carl Spaatz were doing what they could with what they had--and it was no mean bomb tonnage. The R.A.F. Bomber Command threw its big punches at night. It hurled a great 600-plane raid at Kassel (locomotives, aircraft, engines), ranged 900 miles northeast to Gdynia to strike at submarines under repair. Another night it was over Nuernberg (diesel engines for submarines, planes, tanks) and the steel center at Saarbruecken. Again it was an airdrome in Belgium, docks at Ostend, power stations in the Lille and Lens areas. U.S. Flying Fortresses made their seventh continental raid, proving the U.S. thesis that the high-speed, high-flying B-17s can be used in daylight raids where accuracy is greater than at night. Not a B-17 had been lost, with or without fighter escort.

London estimated that altogether five and a half square miles in nine German cities had been devastated, that 500 war factories had been smashed beyond speedy repair, 1,000,000 Germans driven from their homes.

With what she could spare from her southern front, Russia smashed at Germany with her long-range aircraft, sent some on round-trip missions of 1,800 miles. Koenigsberg, Danzig and Stettin felt their fury, but what pleased Russians most was the objective farthest from home.

Their pilots reached Berlin, plastered targets with incendiary and explosive bombs while the Moscow radio warned Germans they could expect long nights of terror all winter.

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