The War Illustrated, Volume 3, No. 54, Page 264, September 13, 1940.

Berlin and its environs were raided four times by the R.A.F. during a week beginning on August 25th and selected military objectives were heavily damaged. In no sense a reprisal for the enemy raids on London, the R.A.F. operations were an extension of the strategy that for months past had dealt hammer blows at key points in enemy territory.

On August 8 the Nazis began their massed aerial attacks on Britain, and eight days later there were two raids on London itself. Whatever may have been the motives that caused Hitler so long to delay the attack on our capital city we may be sure that expediency governed his action. For long months our Air Force had been striking at hundreds of aerodromes, factories, transport lines and other key points night after night-with great success and surprisingly few losses. The Nazis might well have suspected that any intensification of their own raids would provoke even greater activity on the part of the R.A.F., and they might also have feared raids on their own capital, which they had often boasted was impregnable to air attack. Yet, driven by the imperative need to strike at Britain’s vitals and to bolster up the morale of his own people, Hitler was compelled to send his airmen against London.

On the night of August 25th bombers of the R.A.F. attacked armament factories in the Berlin area, thus opening a new phase in the air war. It must be emphasised that though this was the first time that bombs were dropped in the region of Berlin, the German capital had in fact been at the mercy of our bombers for months past, since many of our pilots had made the journey in every sort of weather since last autumn. During March, for instance, Berlin was visited five times in six nights by the R.A.F. The Air Ministry pointed out that the raid of Sunday night was not a reprisal for the Nazi attacks on London. It was, of course, merely a quite legitimate extension of our bombing attacks on military objectives.

Berlin’s raid warning lasted just over an hour and a quarter: ten heavy explosions were hear within a few minutes of the sirens sounding. Later there were other detonations and much gunfire. The German A.A. guns were in action for nearly 3 hours. Leaflets as well as bombs were dropped by our machines. An American correspondent said that the next day three streets in the German capital had been roped off; according to a Stockholm report certain streets were strewn with shell splinters and leaflets.

On the night of Wednesday, August 28th, "important targets in the Berlin area were heavily bombed," said an Air Ministry announcement. Both high explosive and incendiary bombs were employed, and the objectives included works vital to war production. Aircraft drawn’ from two squadrons made a special attack on one objective only four miles from the centre of the city. A neutral report stated that at a point in the Kottbusserstrasse a time bomb embedded in the roadway was a menace to Berlin’s underground railway.

Next day the German broadcasting stations warned people to go to the shelters directly they heard A.A. gun-fire. Newspapers described the British bombing as "wilful murder" and as "Churchill’s deliberate manoeuvre to terrorize the German population." It was stated that ten persons were killed and 28 injured.

Fifteen tons of bombs were dropped in the Berlin area on Friday night (August 30-31) by the R.A.F. Objectives included a factory making war material, a petroleum store, and aerodromes. The raid lasted between 2 and 3 hours, and intense opposition was encountered from the ground defences.

On Saturday night, Aug. 31-Sept. 1, for the fourth time during the week, Berlin was raided. This time our bombers singled out lighting installations, an aero-engine factory, and an aerodrome in the German city and its environs. Visibility was poor, and to the west of Berlin the entire region for a distance of 70 miles was covered with a bank of low cloud. Now and then a break in the clouds enabled our pilots to catch a glimpse of one of the many lakes in the district and thus to get their bearings.

Thus was the myth of Berlin’s invulnerability destroyed. Its people had been told that the city was so well protected by A.A. batteries that no raider would be able to get through. This was a foolish exaggeration, and bound to bring about its own disproof. By contrast, Britons were told long ago by the Government that it was practically impossible to prevent some raiders penetrating their defences by night (and, with less probability by day) given a sufficiently determined attack. Instead of being buoyed up by false and delusive hopes of immunity they rely on a quiet courage to face the perils and a determination to play a citizen’s part in the Battle of Britain.

Mr. Churchill to the Bomber Command:

The War Cabinet have asked me to congratulate the Bomber Squadrons who have been engaged in the recent long-distance attacks on military objectives in Germany and Italy.

The fact that on occasion of the first operations in the Berlin area, last Sunday week, the great majority of the pilots brought their bombs home rather than loose them under weather conditions which made it difficult to hit the precise military objectives prescribed in their orders, shows the high standard of poise and self-restraint preserved by the R.A.F. in the performance of their dangerous duties.

This is in marked contrast with the wanton cruelty exhibited by the German fliers, who, for example, have vented their spite upon defenceless watering place and town of Ramsgate, in which nearly a thousand dwellings and shops, mostly of a modest character, have been wrecked.

It is very satisfactory that so many tons of British bombs have been discharged with such precision in difficult conditions and at such great distances, and that so many important military objectives in Germany and Italy have been so sharply smitten.

All this is another sign and proof that the command of the air is being gradually and painfully, but none the less remorselessly, wrested from the Nazi criminal who hoped by this means to terrorize and dominate European civilization.