British Air Ministry Denies Blasting of German Dams Was Suggested by Refugee

While Nazi radio stations and newspapers called for reprisals on Jews for the British bombing of the two Ruhr dams, which has caused floods and great damage to Nazi war industries, the British Air Ministry last night issued a statement denying the report that the blasting of the dams was carried out at the suggestion of a Jewish refugee from the Reich now in London.

The statement of the Ministry said that the Royal Air Force intelligence service had long compiled material on all objectives important to German war production, including the wrecked dams. This material had been carefully examined by the proper military authorities with a view to attacks at the most favorable moment. The attack on the Ruhr dams “had been suggested on several occasions by members of the public, but the operation did not in fact originate with any such suggestion,” the statement emphasized.

Major Oliver Stewart, writing in the London Evening Standard, ridicules the idea that the bombing of the dams was carried out at the suggestion of a civilian. “All who studied German and Italian targets for air bombing were aware of the enormous advantage for the allies of breaching the dams,” he points out. “The trouble has been with devising means to do it. The present attack is partly due to research which was started at the outbreak of the war by an engineer not well known outside of the aircraft industry whose name cannot be disclosed.”