Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-11
Bodies in Raid Debris
Create Reich Disease Menace
By NELSON M. SHEPARD.

BASH~BB -
BY NELSON M. SHEPARD.
The bombing Of Germany killed
500, 900 civilians, injured zoe, 900, left
1900, 900 homeless and created a
postwar health problem that threat
ems to become a potential burden
and danger" to the conquering AL
lies, a board of medical investiga-
tors reported today.
Seven months after the last aerial
bombs were dropped, the War De-
partment revealed, the bodies OF
$4,000 to 10000 civilians remain
under the debris of these former
urban battlefronts. Hospitals, med
ical supplies and sanitary facilities
were destroyed. The breakdown Of
transportation was a deciding factor
in the food shortages.
The report stressed this warning
by strategic bombing, the con-
queror created one of his greatest
posthostilities problems. The all
raids on German cities brought the
health of the German people to the
brink of disease, pestilence and
famine. Whether the impost Of
this will be sufficiently sustained te
pull them into the abyss of the
apocalypse, only the experience o!
this winter can tell"
No Outbreaks of Disease.
Perhaps the most amazing dis.
closure in the survey was the fac
that during all the bombing and at
tendant deficiencies in sanitation
there were mo outbreaks of diseass
Of such alarming proportions Al
might be described as major api'
denies" This was attributed to tn,
effect of regimented health meas
ures, the traditional training Of
the German people in hygiene ant
habits of cleanliness.
The report added, however:
There is clear-cut evidence tina
hao the bombings continued TO.
several months longer. German ply
sicians would have been unable Il
render the barest essentials O
medical care. epidemics would hav,
ensued and the adequacy of die
would have been well within tn,
range Of starvation. That the.
would have been sufficiently health.
to support their war effort is doubt
full"
The survey was made in thu
American, British and French oc
cupation zones by Is Army ant
civilian scientists headed by Maj
Cortez F. Enlee, jr, chief of tn
Army's Medical Sciences Branch
The Investigations were conducted
to find out how completely regi
mented nation reacts to large-scal
air raids.
Protective Measures Urged.
In reporting its conclusions, thu
board recommended CAREFUL.
planned protective measures basee
on lessons already learned, so tina
a democratic people can, If TIT
necessity ever arises, evolve method
to carry on in the face of like o.
worse conditions"
I'm this investigation" it was re.
ported, I'VE found no evidence Of
Allied effort to break the health Of
the German people. Nevertheless.
- the events in the air great.
succeeded in lowering the standard
Of health throughout Germany by
destroying facilities for the mainte.
nance of environmental sanitation
by creating the most acute condi.
tions of overcrowding which hav,
ever been encountered in the West.
ern World, by denying civilians hos
pitai care and adequate drugs ane
by changing three meals a day from
an individual habit to an object O.
individual ingenuity"
Fire and carbon monoxide poi
soning are ''the killers In air raids,
the post.mortem found.
While the destruction wrought b,
a single atomic bomb Is unequaled
the board concluded that prelirni
nary reports from Hiroshima ant
Nagasaki indicate that the mum
Der and type Of injuries in an atomic
bomb attack do not differ signif1
cantly from those inflicted upon tn,
German civilian population in tn
great fire raids"
Number of Dead Increases.
The number of civilians estimate,
killed in these raids is about 200,
600 higher in the medical repor
than the number given in the recen
United States Strategic Bombing
Survey. The difference is due t.
the foreign dead who were omittet
from the ofiicial German record
and are based on a Is per cent rati'
of the number reported missing il
cities.
I The city of Hamburg, scene of tn
greatest holocaust, was cited as tn
outstanding example of horrors Wis
tied upon the populace Of bombe'
city. Out of possible $1,000 civil
ians killed. the bodies Of some 1900
remain to be dug out of ruins tw
and a half years after the grea
Raj raid of July q, 1913.
The Hamburg fire blizzard" ere
ated a wind draught that had tn
force of q 90-mile-an-hour tornad
within one-half mile Of the burning
area. The temperature in the burn
ing city blocks, it was claimed, wen
as high as 1,472 degrees, Fahrenheit
No Shelter From Flames.
In peacetime, people rarely tax
refuge in the basement of a burn
ing house, the report said, but dur
ing an incendiary raid even goot
shelters often offer no safeguar,
from the heat. When the peopl
were driven outside for relief, the,
were engulfed in the fire blizzard
and some were picked off their fee
and hurled into the burning areas
Here is what the survey reporte,
on the Hamburg raid:
Literally hundreds of people wer
seen leaving shelters after the hea
became intense. They ran acros
the street and were seen to collaps,
- . @'