This report is from The Scotsman dated 20th December 1940. Bearing in mind That the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 was in full force, I still find this disconcerting.
It is riddled with falsehoods and is in effect, a propaganda exercise on behalf of the local and national authorities.
By the time the official statement was issued, the authorities would have had an accurate estimate of the casualties which were over 660 fatalities and over 1500 injured. The so called "fantastic rumours were not exaggerated - it was one of the worst air raids inn all of the Second World War and Sheffield suffered.
This report was purely for Nazi consumption but I wonder what effect this would have had on civilian morale no that 40000 people in the city were now homeless. It may have been more appropriate to not have issued a statement that bore no relation to the facts.
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