The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-11-24
BERLIN SMASHED
IN HUGE ATTACK
Continued From Page One)

Continued From Page One)
weight of explosives The previous
record weight of just 1900 long
tons poured down on Hamburg last
Aug. %.
Reports tonight from Stockholm
said a heavy pail Of smoke hung
over the stricken Nazi capital all
day, and tonight parts of the city
still were in flames with fire fight
ers and other air raid workers,
already weary from coping with
a heavy attack four nights before,
still toiling desperately.
Radios Go Off Air
And tonight, as the terror
stricken population Of Berlin at
tempted to check the devastation
of last nights raid, continental ra-
dios suddenly closed down limiting
that the worlds fourth largest city
again was being pounded by the
Allies.
U. S. Marauder medium bomb
ers kept up the attack on the
Nazi-controlied continent during
the day, bombing Cherbourg in
northern France and German air.
fields.
Berlin is the heart of Germans
war effort because if is the cen
ter of the government and one of
the countrys major industrial
areas, especially for electrical
equipment, and it is the nations
key transportation center.
First reports from Berlin
through Sweden said the immense
destruction causel by last nights
raid included the 20C-room head
quarters of the Todt organization
from which Albert Speer, Reich
production Gar, administered the
country's war production effort.
Three of the capitals World-fa-
NOUS streets-Unter den Linden,
the Friedriehstrasse and Alexan-
derplatz - were shattered. Trans
portation, electrical and gas SER
vice in many parts Of the city
were disrupted.
Siemenstadt, center of the great
Siemens electrical works, was
among a dozen important suburbs
hit. Several foreign legations were
burned and all that was left of
the Swedish legation was the bomb
shelter, tn Finnish, Hungarian
and Danish legations were either
destroyed or badly damaged, re-
ports from Stockholm said.
The huge Raj force struck
around 8 o'clock and in few
minutes had deluged miles and
miles of the city from the govern
mental Wilhelmstrasse to the key
industrial suburbs with a storm
of high explosives.
Recounting the horrible hours"
that followed, Berlin correspond
ents of Swedish newspapers gave
graphic accounts of the results.
Ten thousand persons were re-
ported killed or injured. The
bombers struck in two waves,
with the second group catching
persons who were trapped outside
air raid shelters when the all clear
signal was mistakenly sounded.
The Germans were powerless to
do anything but shoot up flax in
wild barrage which knocked
down a maximum of rs bombers,
less than half of the Raj loss in
the first big attack on Berlin Aug.
%.
Solid overcast clouds prevented
the Germans from sending up
fighter planes and from using
their searcniights to spot the Brit
ish bombers, but the clouds did
not hamper the bombers. They
dropped their bombs through the
flare outline laid down by path
finder planes. Even through the
thick clouds British crewmen re-
ported they saw fires and explo-
sions 70 miles away.
1T was like a terrific sunset"
was the way one returning pilot
described the target.
Hundreds of crewmen reported
seeing one of the most violent ex-
plosions ever reported from a Ger
man target, in which everything
suddenly went white and the bril-
lance remained in the sky long
after the bombers turned away.
One pilot said he saw over so
two-ton block-busters 60 down
while ne was over the target.
AS the pombers Groned away
Swedish reporters said the people
emerged from the shelters, with
help totally inadequate"