The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1943-08-11
HE'LL FROM THE SKIES


crack up?
Here in The Citizen office, Radius
says three or four months; the writer, as
though he were drawing up a note, with
which hundreds of residents in the realty
boom lays were familiar: ION or before
November IL, 1943" That date is three
months from today. and it will mark the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the first World
War armistice.
The radio is humming with guesses.
and newspapers are running column ar
ticles about the probability of Germany :
suing COR peace shortly. Many of the guess
ers stress the setbacks with which the Ger
mans ale meeting in Russia as the main. or
one of the main. reasons why the thoughts
of the German warlords turn to peace. but
if that was all they had to worry them, they
would go or fighting, on and on intermin-
ably Stop the bombing of German cities,
and the German war-machine could stale
mate the Russians for generation after gen
Grafton.
We, in Key West, have to trust to our
imaginations TO try to engender a cOnceD-
us consider the Super-blOckbuster. an 5000
pound bomb, that has torn many parts of
Germany to pieces. If one of them struck
the CITY Hall in Key West. you would feel
the conclusion at Pirates Cove. % miles
away.
But we can paint picture that will be
more appreciable to Key West adults in
f,.-,,,;,,.. IN, ;loa of Tho .arriIIa ,aS,tI+, of n
bombing raid. You, who have gone through
hurricane. naturally have no liking for
that manifestation of Nature in an ugly
mood. yet a hurricane is like a cheek-cool-
ing zephyr compared to blOckbuster air
raid.
Those former steel and concrete struc
lures in Germany that have been reduced 10
rubble could have withstood hurricane that
never leased. Their wind resistance aver
aged 200 miles an hour. more than three
times as much as the velocity of the average
hurricane. Some hurricanes blow more than
100 miles an hour, but their sustained
velocity is generally below that force
The Germans would welcome a day
inland day out hurricane in place of those
earth-shaking explosions, terrific any
building is torn TO pieces as though it was
a house of cards.
You would pack up and leave town.
wherever that town may be. where a hurri-
cane forever blew. yet the people of Ger
many face the daily blasting by something
far more terrible than hurricane. blowing
every day. You know how YOU dread hur-
rcane, when YOU hear that one Is headeA
this way. but your dread does rot begin To
compare with the dread the Germans en-
terrain when i'm the dead of night. they hear
the drone OF on-coming planes of deStruc-
ton.
If your guess. or the writer's guess. or
my guess is right about the imminence Of
the Germans seeking peace. Their you may
be sure that the reason for taking that az
ton is not traceable to the Russian front.
The thing that has reduced Germany TO 4
country of dread is the round-the-clock
bombing of her cities. some of which are
mere shells of what they were before the
war. You may he able TO sleep SOundly if
YOU knew that hell may be raired from the
sky at any moment, but our sleep would be
fretful even were we deep down in bomb
shelter
The air raidS-they have provided the
horrors that first tautened and then broke
the Germans nerve.