Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-03-12
BY Walter McCallum,
Star Staf Correspondent.

by w dltCl 0CNdl4 I'LL,
Star Stat Correspondent.
SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND.-Some-
where in London's sprawling miles of
drab buildings is headquarters for the
Royal Air Force, and combined opera
tons setup including the American Air
Headquarters, where daily score is kept
on the CHASTITY piece Of business the
Americans and British are doing by air
assault on Hitlers Europe and particu-
larry in Germany proper. If air bomb
ing is to end the war the score is i'm
pressive enough, but air bombing hasn't
finished the European phase of the con-
fiict yet, and lot of high military
minds doubt that air assault, notwith-
standing the saturation tactics of both
air forces, will completely knock out
NaA Germany, so great hold have the
Hitler and Himmler crowd on the dazed
people Of the Reich.
So preparations for second land
front speed up. 1t is understood here and
throughout the world that such front
will be established, but the place or
places and the time is left to guesswork.
It will be surprise when 1t comes, to
Hitler and the world.
Statistics are boring enough at best,
but definitely they have a meaning when
you walk around London and view the
results Of few hundred tons of bombs
poured at intervals over the great
spraying metropolis up the Thames
Estuary, and think over what must be
the result to Berlin from the many thou
sands Of tons of bombs poured on the
home of Hitlerism from the planes of
the 9th American Air Force and the
Bomber Command of the RAJ.
The Score Is Mounting
The score on Berlin is mounting to-
ward the 25,0O0-ton mark. The score
on London since August, 1910, is around
1850 tons, or about one-tenth that
which has been poured on Hitler's cap
ital. The blue book, which few corre-
spondents have seen, says that about
half Of central Berlin has been de-
stroyed, and the bombers now are work.
ing toward the outer edges of the city,
where many war industries are located.
So accurate are the heavies of the Royal
Air Force, the Lancasters and Halifaxes,
and the fast Mosquitoes, known as the
medium bomber without flaw, that on
one recent raid they took up their bomb
ing in one direction exactly 100 yards
from the spot where a recent raid
stopped.
ut was 'orful," Cockney girl told me,
about the bombing of London in the big
blitz of 1870" We 'ad ourselves deep
down in q shelter, so deep it was almost
suffocating. The high explosives came
down and shattered the walls and shook
us all up. The high explosives came
down around us and scared us all arr
to death. One came down ard hit the
top of the shelter. The lights went out
It was 'orful. People were shrieking
and crying. Suddenly another Cockney
~ iaidey started singing and cunning people
RI about!s'rt' p iere--"" ri won -
a 10 "'Wot are you crying abart?' she said
Itler cawn't 'urt us. E asnt got enough
-sdynarhite'"e' CAV rs
Can Air Bombing Do the Job?
But you walk around London and see
what a few hundred tons have done
and wonder what has happened tx
Berlin, with 10 times the weight Of ton.
mage dropped on city less than hall
the size of the British big town. You
hear Of $4,000 suf1ocated at deserted
Hamburg, where they were trapped ir
a shelter under river, with both end,
blown in, and the British estimate Of
nearly 10000 dead in Berlin and you
wonder II air bombing, after all, cannot
do the job despite the SIS and Himmler
In retaliation the Germans indulge
their vanity with what the British have
called "scalded cat raids, by a few
bombers which fly up the Thame!
Estuary and If not scared of by thu
somewhat terrific London antiaircraf
barrage, drop bomb here and there
The British papers play them down, bu
the German communique. speaks o.
tremendous damage. Actually the dam
age Is small.
But Jerry must be mad about tn.
damage done to the Reichstag, which