Evening star., 1941-07-29
German Bombings Have Failed
To Halt British War Industry
Columbia Historian Describes FutiIity
Of Vast Destruction Inflicted by Nozs

ampton the bombing had obviously
been widely indiscriminate, had
fallen mainly on shopping and resi-
Dental areas, and had left the port
little harmed.
In Sheffield the visitor looks out
from Victoria Station, on one of the
hills trimming the town, upon an
expanse of smoking chimneys that
rivals Pittsburgh. In Birmingham
few factories have been Quilted,
but most of the great plants are
intact; the main damage is to
houses, hotels, hospitals and shops.
But Coventry is the most extraordi-
nary illustration of the inability OF
the bombers to do real vital damage.
AS a city Coventry is mutilated be-
yond all recognition; as manufac-
turing area it is still practically un-
harmed and vigorously busy.
The tremendous raid at Coventry
on November 1914 last fall was
followed this spring by another saw
age blow. I was shown about the
city by Alderman w. Halliwell, who
has won a national reputation by
his impetuous energy. He told me
that when the war began Coventry
had about 74.000 houses. In the
great blitz between 1000 and 5000
were demolished and about 10000
were more or less damaged; many
suffering only smashed windows and
sprung doors.
The death roll for that November
night was more than 500. The great
blitz of April Is, which I witnessed,
was simply a piece of German spite
fulness, a vindictive attempt to
smash as many as possible of those
artistic and historical monuments
in which London is so incomparably
richer than Berlin.
Almost equally barbarous were the
structures are less hurt than Amer
leans might suppose The bomb that
went through the lantern tower of
Westminster Abbey did such restrict
ed harm that damage is hardly
visible from the outside. Only a
small part of the roof of Westmins-
ter Hall has been shattered. The
main structure of the House of
Parliament is intact; so is the main
structure of st. Paul's. But it is sad
to look at the ruins elsewhere
the Guildhall, the Middle Temple
and Inner Temple, Gray's Inn.
Westminster School. st. Clement
Danes, Chelsea Old Church and
Chelsea Hospital, great part OF
Lamberth Palace and many another
lovely and stored building.
Little Military Harm.
These blows. with the deaths that
they caused-for on April l6 the
British lost more lives in London
than in the main Greek campaign
did practically no military harm.
They were blows at civilization
which left Germany as well as the
rest of the world permanently
poorer.
OF course it would be incorrect to
say that no important war damage
has been done in Great Britain.
Not all of the bombs failed to find
military objectives. The docks at
Liverpool have suffered heavily at
one point. A munitions ship is said
to have blown up. there. with terri
bic results. Docks and port facili-
ties in London have been badly in
jured. Any one who goes through
Birmingham on the Great Western
passes within a few feet OF huge
factory completely Quilted. Great
warehouses full of valuable goods
have been destroyed.
The British method of concen-
trating on military objectives is bet
ter than the German method of in
discriminate bombing. The former
may yield important results; Brit
aims endurance shows that the lat
ter never can Winston Churchill
is reported to have said, when asked
why the R. A. F. did not begin re-
prisals against civilians, Business
before pleasure" In bombing, the
business of hitting military targets
alone counts Germany's disregard
of that rule is both criminality and
folly.