South Yorkshire Times, November 27th 1943
Ripening The Harvest
The Bomb blizzard which has struck Berlin during the last few days while only a further instalment of the punishment which the German capital has been marked down for, nevertheless ominously reemphasises the capabilities of Bomber Command., These massive attacks by the R.A.F. are as terrific in terms of the air element as anything conceived or achieved on land by the vast Russian and German- forces locked in frontal combat in the East. To mount such raids is a remarkable organisational feat, to press them to a successful and devastating conclusion is a still greater achievement and one which speaks volumes for the skill and courage of our airmen.
No other country but Great Britain has been able to develop the bombing arm on anything like such a grand scale. The Luftwaffe tried to do it, but in these heavy attacks we are doubling the numbers of bombers they sent at the height of their onslaught, while the tonnage of bombs delivered is many more times in our favour. Never was a nation so aptly paid back in its own coin. Already this year Berlin alone has had well over twelve thousand tons of bombs hurled down upon it, and many other towns in the Reich, more easily saturated by reason of their smaller size, have also been dreadfully scourged in this chastening campaign.
No amount of darkly muttered threats about secret weapons will repair the ruin of British block-busters, or bring back to life those sacrificed in a cause whose assets they examined much more closely than its liabilities, Hitler may seek to retaliate; a man of his nature is almost certain to attempt reprisals, but whatever spite his warped mind devises it is hardly likely to relieve the Reich of the cruel ordeal it is now undergoing. The balance of striking power has swung relentlessly from the side of the aggressor and whatever fresh blows he deals will be returned with interest.
That Berlin has become the most heavily raided capital in the world is one of those grim ironies of the war over which no tears will be shed outside Germany. The ravages of Guernica, Warsaw, and a long list of other Continental and British cities may now derive suitable edification from the spectacle of their own jealously guarded Berlin delivered up to the agonies of full-scale aerial bombardment. Nothing could be more fitting, And if the R.A.F.’s encouragingly reduced rate of loss is any criterion the first city of the Reich is only at the beginning of its travail. The hard and repeated blows delivered upon it during the last week are an earnest of British tenacity; a reminder that there is no peace, no security, no rest for the German people until their Nazi war lords have been overthrown and the inevitable acceptance of the Allied terms of unconditional surrender marks the garnering of a grisly harvest sown in arrogance and reaped in bitter humiliation