Evening star., 1942-06-01
By EDWIN SHANKE,

ASSOCIdIeQ fItsS WdI SOLl lSopO1dcA1s
LONDON, June 1.-The monster
r. A. F. raid on Cologne Saturday
night served notice on the German
population of what they had feared
and for which they had been pre-
pairing since the United States entry
into the war-the increasing de-
structive force of the Allied air
power.
German people have a healthy re-
spect for production in America.
When Hitler declared war on that
great industrial giant, they irnmed-
lately had visions of their skies
darkened by attacking bombers.
They feared they would have to
endure such blitz raids as London
and other English cities experienced.
Now the people of Cologne know
what Britons went through-and
then some.
Actually, German uneasiness about
air raids dates back to year ago.
The R. A. F. in heavier raids than
usual on Berlin were using what
the Germans then described as a
mystery bomb
Nazis Frankly Worried.
It's effect was a puzzle to the Ger
mans and frankly worried them.
They found, for example, that a
bomb dropped in Adolf Hitler Plaza
had effective force in a radius of
1850 to 1900 yards. Some German
air experts confldentially admitted
that In the long run such bombs
dropping on Berlin could cause de-
struction similar to LondonS.
One of the more immediate results
was the program of strengthening
basement AFRAID protection IN
apartment houses.
At the same time, the Germans
began to build public fortress-type
AFRAID shelters with walls at least
a yard thick in the squares OF
Berlins crowded residential districts.
A propaganda campaign was IN
tensif1ed to urge parents to send
children into the country.
Propaganda Minister Goebbels
was so uncertain of the psychological
effect that descriptions of British
sufferings from Nazi raids would
have on Germans that he never
dared give too detailed reports. The
press, in fact, was instructed reg
ularly not to stress the horrors of
au-out bombing raids.
Not Prepared Mentally.
The people, therefore, were not
prepared mentally for attacks as
intense as Saturday nights thou
sand odd plane assault on Cologne.
Muenster may be taken as an
example of the effect a really hard
r. A. F. bombing can have on the
German people.
After five successive nights of
bombings last summer the town
temporarily was deserted, People
fled in panic into the fields. Stores
were closed. There was no food, no
gas, no lights, no water. Hundreds
suffered nervous shock and break
downs.
No report ever appeared in Ger
man newspapers on the Muenster
raids aside from curt high command
references to them. But letters from
Germans. who experienced them
spread the story pretty well through
the country.
And their reactions struck fear
into the hearts of those who still
had to experience their first air
raid, for the latter knew that Ger
mans in the Rhineland and west
generally were tougher and less
prone to become upset and unnerved
unless there were real cause.
The raids on Berlin-pinpricks
compared to those on London
always depressed Berlipers. They
left them with nasty tempers and
put working efficiency on the to-
boggan. And there always went up
. loud cry from Berliners for re
taliation."
German troubles shooting and
cleanup squads work frantically
after each raid to remove signs OF
damage as quickly as possible. In
this manner the Nazis attempt TO
check chances of generalization
spreading beyond the narrow circle
Affected by a bomb hit.