Monday, Dec. 27, 1943

Morale Bombing

After five thumping R.A.F. raids, 68,000 Nazi soldiers were called in to help clean up Berlin. Goebbels publicly thanked them. They were dismissed. Last Friday it was a safe bet they were trudging back to Berlin.

The R.A.F. waited patiently for 14 days. Weather was unfavorable for flying, but there was another reason. Berlin was returning to normal. Its streets were cleared, its traffic moving again, its fires out, its dead buried.

Then, in just 25 minutes, the R.A.F. laid another ghastly wound across its recuperating hulk. Said a Swiss eyewitness: three-fifths of the city now is in ruins, 2,000,000 homeless.

No howling success against U.S. daylight attacks, the Luftwaffe's new rocket-equipped planes flailed the night skies for the first time. The R.A.F.'s loss (30 bombers) was 25% lower than the last time it saw Berlin.

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