Current Events November 25, 1943:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY NOVEMBER 25, 1943:

 A mighty RAF armada, striking at Berlin Tuesday night for the second time within 24 hours, left in its wake great searing walls of flame and a Nazi press screaming for revenge, Stockholm reports said yesterday.
Dispatches from the Swedish capital said that Berlin appeared well on the way last night to being temporarily knocked out qf. the war.

 Berlin is being turned into a .hell of burning buildings and streets running with fire. "The trip to the Tempelhof airdrome was like a journey through an inferno," said one of the Swedish d'plomats who made that journey after the first raid. Now, after the second raid, the scenes there, as told by neutrals in the city, almost defy description. Here, "taken from these various sources, is the story of Berlin today.

Berlin is being paid back—with compound interest—for the blitz which the Luftwaffe inflicted on London in the dark winter of 1940-41.

 U.S. Army troops of the 27th Infantry Division captured the atoll of Makin yesterday, a naval communique announced today, and Adm. Chester Nimitz assured that the other 4,000 Japanese on Tarawa and Abamama in the Gilberts "would soon be cleaned up" by the 2nd Marine division.

 Strong forces of German troops southwest of. Kiev were reported last night to be either resisting fiercely or
counter-attacking in a stubborn bid to crush the Russian wedge protecting the Ukranian capital city.
Moscow admitted stiff German resistance in this sector, and last night the Berlin radio claimed the recapture
of Chernyakov and Brussilov, both cities about 35 miles from Kiev itself.

            THE STARS AND STRIPES
             Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed the Eorces In The European Theater of Operations
                    New York, N.Y.—London, England             Thursday, Nov. 25, 1943

      Latest Raid Leaves Berlin an Inferno

Nazi Press Screams
For Revenge as Vast
Fires Sweep Capital
City Near to Being Knocked .Out of War,
Stockholm Hears; Thousands Reported
Killed in RAF Mass Assaults
 A mighty RAF armada, striking at Berlin Tuesday night for the second time within 24 hours, left in its wake great searing walls of flame and a Nazi press screaming for revenge, Stockholm reports said yesterday.
Dispatches from the Swedish capital said that Berlin appeared well on the way last night to being temporarily knocked out qf. the war.
The Stockholm newspaper Afton Tidningen said it learned from reliable sources that new fires started from incendiaries Tuesday night linked with flames still burning from Monday night's 2,300-ton assault. Some reports to the Swedish capital told of great walls of flame more than half a mile long  in Berlin.
And last night another stream of bombers, believed to be RAF, headed eastward over the Straits of Dover for the third successive night. The drone of motors continued for nearly an hour, even longer than on the preceding nightwhen Berlin got its second pasting in arow.
The DNB station in Berlin went off the air at 8.30 PM. Bremen and Cologne radios went off the air shortly after. The German city, which now enjoys the dubious distinction of being the world's most-bombed capital, was paralyzed and virtually isolated. Telephone, telegraphic communications and surface transport had broken down completely.
                                                              50,000 Reported Killed
A Berne message to Afton Tidningen said that 25,000 were killed in each of the two great raids of Monday and Tuesday nights. Another Swedish version of casualties said that the total death toll was 25,000, with an additional 38,000 rendered homeless.

 Hell Comes to Berlin
 United Press Staff Correspondent
SOTOCKHOLM, Nov. 24—Berlin is being turned into a .hell of burning buildings and streets running with fire. "The trip to the Tempelhof airdrome was like a journey through an inferno," said one of the Swedish d'plomats who made that journey after the first raid. Now, after the second raid, the scenes there, as told by neutrals in the city, almost defy description. Here, "taken from these various sources, is the story of Berlin today.
The destruction in Berlin now, after its third raid within a week, is impossible to describe. Buildings are still burning fiercely in many parts of the city. Even the asphalt in the streets is burning.
The heat is so fierce that people collapse because of it. Streets that are still open cannot be passed because the heat strikes like a wall of fire from one side to the other.
Tens of thousands are already leaving the city and pouring out to suburbs like Potsdam, Straussberg and Fuersstenwalde. Thousands of Berliners are filling the streets in this trek. Some of them have only the clothes they stand in. Others carry hurriedly tied bundles and bags. Some of them are wounded, and pass through the streets moaning with pain.
Their faces are blackened with soot and smoke. Many of them have bandaged hands, a sign that they were burned in frantic and useless efforts to put out the flames of the thousartds of fires that raged last night and the night before.

 Berlin Is Now
Most-Bombed
City in World
Last Three A ttacks Alone
Equal 66% of London's
       Whole Blitz
 Berlin is being paid back—with compound interest—for the blitz which the Luftwaffe inflicted on London in the dark winter of 1940-41.
In the last six days more than 5,000 tons of bombs have been dropped into a comparatively small area of the German capital, compared with 7,500 tons dropped on the whole of London during the blitz.
Berlin is now the world's most-bombed city. Hamburg had a total of around 10,000 tons; Essen, Hanover and Cologne around S.,000, and Mannheim and Ludwigshafen over 7,000. Veterans of the London terror raids were staggered Irying to conceive the havoc wrought on Berlin by two such heavy attacks in a row.
Word from neutral capitals that Berlin was on the brink of being knocked out of the war reminded Londoners of the situation the night of May 5, 1941, when the Germans made one of their heaviest attacks on London, and it was generally agreed that if they had returned the next night the chaos would have been awful.
 Moreover, the Germans raided on only a one-fifth scale, using only 400 planes, whereas even Berlin estimated last night that the RAF had used 900 heavy bombers in its twin blows.
Berlin is the crux of Germany's war. because it is the center of the government, a key transportation center and one of the country's major industrial areas, particularly electrical equipment.

 27th Division
Seizes Jap Isle
Other Bases in the Gilberts
Soon to be Cleared Up
Adm. Nimitz Says
 PEARL HARBOR, Nov. 24—
U.S. Army troops of the 27th Infantry Division captured the atoll of Makin yesterday, a naval communique announced today, and Adm. Chester Nimitz assured that the other 4,000 Japanese on Tarawa and Abamama in the Gilberts "would soon be cleaned up" by the 2nd Marine division.
Latest reports of the Tarawa fighting said the Leathernecks were striking forward from the eastern end of tiny Belito atoll and were making good progress against strongly-entrenched Jap troops defending the island's great bomber airfields.
On Abamama a report said the "situation was well in hand by the Marines." The U.S. fleet meanwhile.stood off the coast of the island and fighters and bombers from aircraft carriers supported the U.S. troops.
                                                             No Jap Air Opposition
No Jap air opposition has been offered and no enemy naval vessels have been sighted as yet, but reports from Tokyo indicate the Jap navy may be moving in the direction of the Gilberts for a big engagement
 Adm. Nimitz, commenting on the absence of Jap naval units in the Gilbert area, said, "The American fleet is ready to meet the Japs if they will come out and fight."

 Strong Nazi
Bid to Crush
Kiev Wedge
 
Big Forces Take 2 Towns
SW of City; Russians
Advance in North
Strong forces of German troops southwest of. Kiev were reported last night to be either resisting fiercely or
counter-attacking in a stubborn bid to crush the Russian wedge protecting the Ukranian capital city.
Moscow admitted stiff German resistance in this sector, and last night the Berlin radio claimed the recapture
of Chernyakov and Brussilov, both cities about 35 miles from Kiev itself.
Great tank battles are being fought at many points along the southern flank of the wedge. A United Press report from Moscow said the Germans had lost 500 tanks and thousands of men in making a number of minor gains in the area.
On the Rezhitsa sector, 150 miles north of Kiev, the Soviets were reported to be launching a diversionary attack to relieve their garrisons in the wedge.
                                                     Nazis Trying for 10 Days
 For ten days massed German assaults "have been made on the southern and southwestern sides of the wedge. Soviet anti-tank units played a great part in repulsing the enemy assaults, and the German advances everywhere were made at an enormous cost.