Bombs on the Capitals The resumption of the bombing of
Berlin has been followed by the bombing of London, and the Berlin papers, with a mixture of bluster and appeal, are suggesting that it is better for neither capital than for both to be bombed. The right comment on that was made by Mr. Attlee when he said in the House of Commons on Tuesday that we should continue our bombing-attacks, concentrating always on those targets that were most effective for bringing the enemy down. Such targets may or may not include Berlin. For the last twelve months and more it has been considered more profitable to direct our attacks on centres of war-industry. There are, of course, many war-industries in Berlin, but there can be no such certainty of damaging them as there is in places where they are more con- centrated, like Bremen or Rostock or the Ruhr. The decision to turn to Berlin again may spring from a conviction that such blows today are calculated to have the maximum effect on the morale of a popula- tion gravely shaken by the defeats in Russia. The agitation in the German Press comes at a moment when we can drop on Berlin a vastly greater weight of bombs than the Luftwaffe can drop on London. Even so it probably remains true that the most profitable targets for the R.A.F. are the great war-industry centres. But a new phase in the bombing of Germany may be nearer to materialis- ing than could recently have been hoped. The Russian victories, and the prospect that Latvian airfields may before long be in Russian hands, suggest the possibility of the concerted and con- centrated bombing of German cities from both East and West. It will involve long flights, but long flights are already being under- taken with conspicuous success as the attacks on Berlin show.
Previous page
