"SUPER BOMBS" KILL 600 IN LONDON. The Associated Press has some choice language for Monday’s German air raid on London -- "nine hours and 41 minutes of fire-streaked, bomb-blasting horror." It was the longest and deadliest raid yet on the British capital, "the worst in British history," says the A.P.. A radio report this morning says the combined casualty totals of the week-end’s raids were 600 dead, 2,600 injured. Almost 2,000 German planes were involved in Monday’s raid. The New York Times reports that the bombs "fell more carelessly than ever. No section of London was immune." No doubt this is the real thing now -- the start of an all-out Blitzkrieg by which Germany intends to decide the war. Monday’s papers give banner headlines to the A.P.’s description of the Nazi explosives as "super bombs," but this is taken merely from an official German claim that the warplanes and bombs used in the latest raids are "of the deadly types reserved exclusively for Nazi knockout blows on special objectives," whatever that means.
But there does seem to be something else special about the current wave of mass raids. Percival Knauth writes in Monday’s New York Times that Reich Marshal Goering is now "personally directing operations." Mr. Knauth quotes authoritative German sources as telling him that "a new phase in the war has begun." The A.P. reports the belief that "Goering would not personally associate himself with anything but a major war action." And, most ominously, Nazi pilots claim that while British antiaircraft fire continues unabated, the R.A.F. fighter-plane defenses are losing their punch.
So much for the British press gloating the other week that the blitzkrieg has "spent its force," and the loose talk about Britain’s fighting men eventually taking the offensive, etc. Twice now, at the start of the Norwegian campaign and again last week, important Britons waxed optimistically when they should have known better. Notably, Prime Minister Churchill has abstained from such talk. Good for him. Britain will need his sober and tough leadership as the fight for the Empire’s life finally begins.
MURROW SAYS INVASION MIGHT BE SEPT. 18. Edward Murrow of the C.B.S. has been doing great eye-witness reporting from London, and gave a shrewd analysis last night as to just what the Germans are up to with the current mass raids. Here’s the quote, transcribed as best as I could from the live broadcast --
"The night bombing is serious and sensational. It makes headlines, kills people, and smashes property but it doesn’t win wars. It may be safely presumed that the Germans know that...several days of terror bombing will not cause this country to collapse....What happens next? The future must be viewed in relation to previous objectives...the western ports and convoys, the Midlands, and Welsh industrial towns and the southern airfields. And now we have the bombing of London. If this is the prelude to invasion, we must expect much heavier raids against London....And we must expect a sudden renewal of the attacks against fighter dromes near the coast, an effort to drive the fighters farther inland. If the Germans continue to hammer London for a few more nights and then sweep successfully to blasting airdromes with their dive bombers, it will probably be the signal for invasion."
Mr. Murrow relates the "currently favored date" for a German invasion as Wednesday, Sept. 18.
EYEWITNESS IMPRESSIONS. A number of other correspondents added some striking first-hand observations to their stories in Monday’s papers. A sampling --
Raymond Daniell, New York Times -- "This correspondent had a narrow escape shortly turning to his home this morning. Long before the bomb exploded, the inrush of air was felt inside the apartment as the bomb hurtled to earth, whistling. First the windows crashed in. Then the whole building swayed like a ship in stormy seas. Next came the blast of the exploding bomb. Then the air was filled with the odor of a burning gun-powder fuse, awakening boyhood memories of Fourth of July celebrations. Just a little way from the doorstep was a deep crater, which served as a reminder that this odor of the explosion was not a part of any celebration."
Larry Rue, Chicago Tribune -- "I heard the whine of one falling bomb, and saw its explosion lift a five story building into the air, where it seemed to be suspended for a moment and then it dissolved."
Tania Long, New York Herald Tribune -- "The grim thing about this war -- now that no holds are barred -- is that the poor people are getting the worst of it. For it is the working-class people, living and toiling for a couple of pounds a week, who live in the dock areas behind the factories and warehouses and gas and oil tanks which the Nazis are attempting to destroy....During an unconducted tour through this region early this afternoon one of the things that impressed this correspondent most was the rows of people lining up at the bus stops, all carrying small suitcases filled with the few possessions they had managed to save. They were the men, women and children who made up the mass exodus from the east of London to the center of the city. Later, dining in one of the largest hotels of central London, I saw some of these people coming in for temporary shelter. Women, gray-faced, hatless, their hair untidy, poured into the basement of the hotel, carrying babies from a few months to a few years old. The children were wrapped in blankets or quilts. A few whimpered. The majority lay limply in their mothers’ arms, and some even slept happily."
CONSCRIPTION DELAY TO BE KILLED? Maybe it was a little early to mourn the isolationists’ victory last week-end in the House vote to impose a sixty-day delay in the military draft. That is, if Monday’s Washington Post is correct in reporting that Capital Hill observers are predicting "swift agreement" by House-Senate conferees to eliminate the Fish amendment from the final version of the bill. The two chambers are at odds on this issue, the House approving a conscription delay by a seven-vote margin and the Senate rejecting it by two votes.
A couple of big factors, the Post reports -- "four of the five House members appointed to compose differences between the House and Senate versions of the measure voted against the Fish provision on the floor, while the Senate twice rejected similar moves." It sounds hopeful, and we should know soon enough. Congress aims now to pass a conscription bill sometime this week and adjourn by Sept. 25.
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