Evening star., 1940-09-06
Writer Finds kazis
Paying Little Heed
To Military Targets
100 Homes Are Declared
Demolished for Every
VitoI Structure Hit
BY WILLIAM H. sTONEMAN,

BY WILLIAM II. STONEMAN,
Chicago Daily News FOREIGN Correspondent
LONDON, Sept. 6.-Night and day
bombing raids on Great Britain are
rapidly increasing in frequency and
intensity and now seem to be de-
veloping into really serious attempt
to blast British war production and
the peoples morale. In other words,
really big show seems to be getting
under way.
At this moment air raid sirens
had sounded again in London after
one OF the most hectic nights In
the history of the city. This is
the fourth raid in this district since
dinner time last night.
As we came to work we could
see great network of smoke trails
over toward the Thames Estuary
provided by a British fighter and
the German bomber 1t was chasing
Three hundred and fifty German
raiders had come down the Thames
Estuary in that raid alone.
Visited Slum District.
Later this morning we went down
to one London slum district and
saw one small part of what the
German raiders had done. For the
second time in six days one or two
German planes had come over and
dropped six or eight explosive bombs
on the neighborhood with no more
military Importance that Gretna
Green. Two. which fell just a few
yards apart, shook a long row of
two-story tenement houses to their
foundations and killed one woman.
-Four or five other bombs dropped
In the same poverty-stricken neigh
borhood, smashing hundreds of win.
dows and blowing out store fronts.
1t was pretty hard to tell what hap
pened last night and what happened
last Saturday. Road repair crews
were still filling in two big craters
from the last show.
This was only one small part of
the show in London last night. and
what happened in London was only
one small part of what happened in
England. This, in turn, was only a
continuation of what had happened
In the country yesterday, the night
before. and the day before that. and
altogether, 1T was nothing at which
to sneeZe.
Terror Is Nazi Tactics.
The general rule in these raids,
and perhaps in most air raids which
have taken place in the worlds his
tory, Is that 100 private homes
generally poor homes-are demol-
lshed for every factory, station, or
warehouse that gets hit and that
great many people who have nothing
10 do with the war get killed and
manned for every person of i'm
portance to the war effort.
What can be said of most night
raids, without any chance of being
disputed. is that German aviators
are shooting into the brown"-are
SIMPLY dropping their loads at any,
thing that happens to be underneath
them-instead of taking the trouble
and risk of going after real military
targets Since they seem to be
pretty brave about their daylight
raids, the logical conclusion Is that
they are generally just trying to
terrify everybody.
1t is no longer true to say that
the Germans are not getting any
flrst-class military targets except
ai- fields. but it probably still is true
to say that they have not yet inter-
fered seriously with Britain's war
effort. What they definitely have
done, as Prime Minister Churchill
indicated yesterday, has been to re-
tard production by causing the
sirens to sound.
tcopyrisht, 1910. by chieaso Daily News.
Inc.D