ANSWER: “However, there were various factors which made effective bombing of the city a complex problem. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of its location was that it lay beyond the effective ranges of Oboe, Gee and G-H, which made locating specific targets electronically extremely difficult. Also, unlike the coastal port of Hamburg or the distinctive shapes and clear returns of Dusseldorf and Wuppertal, the H2S radar could not break out various elements of the city accurately. The distinctiveness of Berlin’s many lakes on radar was not dependable, and the great indeterminate mass of the cosmopolitan build-up tended to change shape on radar, depending on the system’s gain or power setting. The capital was also enormously spread out, encompassing more than 900 square miles, and boasted many open spaces, so that “the bombers had difficulty hitting specific targets or wiping out large contiguous areas. In fact, the early raids had achieved so little by the end of 1941 that the British suspended attacks on Berlin for about a year to concentrate on easier targets and to develop technical improvements that would, they hoped, make it easier to hit the German capital. However, the drawback for bombing associated with the city’s sprawl was partially offset by the extensive imbedding of industrial works and firms within the residential areas, thus augmenting the legitimacy of these broad districts as targets. Even so, Berlin’s largely modern infrastructure meant that the comparatively wide streets tended to limit the spread of fire.”                                  

From  No Prouder Place, pg. 248