Evening star., 1943-01-18
Raids
Continued From First Page.)

important public buildings were hit
and industrial damage was slight.
High explosive bombs extensively
damaged 20 houses on one London
road and seven in another during
the morning attack. Several casual
ties were reported and rescue squads
searched the debris for other victims.
A stick of bombs dropped in one
London district during the first raid
wrecked block OF shops, big de-
partment store and many houses A
fireWatcher and woman were killed
there, several persons we're injured
and others we're trapped.
Confidence in Growing Might.
The quick exchange of blows dem
onstrated simultaneously Britain S
confidence in her growing air might
and the increased strength of her
home defenses. which limited the
damage inflicted in the London area
to a fraction of the havoc created
in Berlin.
Only one bomber out of perhaps
300 which participated in the Sat-
urday night assault on Berlin failed
to return.
That assault was the first on the
German capital since the night of
November 7, 1941, and was char
acterized as the heaviest to which
the city ever had been subjected by
British raiders.
Returning pilots said they had set
fires visible 100 miles away and re-
ported that large areas in Berlin
had been laid waste by 1000 and
5000 pound bombs and thousands
OF incendiaries
Flyers who had participated in
previous raids on Berlin-once
known to British airmen as "the
hottest spot in Germany''-said the
anti-aircraft fire was the weakest
they had encountered over the city
Il saw only one searchlight," de-
clared one airman, "and the fax was
negligible compared with previous
experiences"
The Germans themselves said they
had shot down only two British
bombers Saturday night.
81 Killed. Germans Say.
The Berlin radio. which usually
attempts to minimize sdamage
caused by raids on German soil, re-
ported that 81 persons had been
killed and about $50 injured in Ber-
lin Saturday night. but indicated the
toll was likely to prove larger when
the debris had been cleared away.
The broadcast said high explosives
and incendiaries had fallen in
densely populated areas and re-
ported that the huge Deutschland
Halle near the Olympic Stadium,
in which many events of the 1886
Olympic games were held, had been
virtually destroyed.
So far as known it was the first
time that Britain's four -motored
bombers had been used to make the
trip to Berlin and back and the first
time the German capital had felt
the destructive force of the block
busters" which have been used fire.
quently over Western German in
dustrial centers in the past year.
The raid also marked the first
time that British and American
press and radio representatives
chosen by lot, were permitted to ac-
company the RAF on a night raid
on the continent.
Gigantic" Destruction.
James Macdonald of the New
York Times, who made the fight
representing American newsmen,
said destruction in Berlin must
have been on gigantic scale"
(Stanley Richardson of NBC,
who also made the trip, in a
broadcast last night from Lon
don said that Berlin presented
an awesome picture of fire under
the pummeling of scores of tons
Of bombs. AS we lined up for
the run over the target whole
blocks Of flaming buildings were
visible below. Those conflagra-
tions left no doubt that the very
heart Of Berlin had been hit, and
hit hard"
German broadcasts describing the
raids last night on London said
that heavy bombers had penetrated
to the heart of the city and de-
clared aerial reconnaissance showed
big fires had been set.