LONDON IN WARTIME

Grey River Argus, 8 January 1944, Page 7

LONDON IN WARTIME

John Brophy, in a broadcast in the 8.8.C.’s short wave overseas service, stated: — , Before I tell you- some of the details of what can be seen in London in wartime, I would like to remind you that London is a unique phenomenon. Never mind .about the administrative organisation under tne London County Council!! the different boroughs and county councils. Take London as she is, th.e capital ■city of Britain, a coherent whole with all the parts interlinked by her own system of electric railways, underground railways, .omnibuses and tramways. Looked at like that London not only has the largest population of any city in the world —nine to ten 'million—but occupies the greatest area. She is the biggest city the world has ever seen. It would take you all day to walk across London from east to west, say from Southall or Greenford to Dagenham. Continuous built-up areas except for the parks and commons. And it is lust as far and just as solid from north to south. About twenty-six to thirty consecutive miles whicnever way you go. I should think it extremely improbable that there is any one living who could honestly say he had set foot in every street in London, or even in half of them. The size of London is important in itself and impressive. It is also important in war. It makes London an easy target from the air. Any enemy aircraft a few minutes after crossing the coast can be sure that when it drops its bombs they Will land somewhere in London. You can bomb London easily enough. You will probably lose twenty to thirty per cent of your aircraft in doing it. Still you can drop bombs on London. The only snag is that you can’t beat London. Even apart from the fact that Londoners have shown they can take it. London is far too big to give satisfactory results. The bomb damage has been heavy in the past and the scars still show. It s lighter in the suburbs but in the middle of London it is hardly possible to walk a quarter of a mile without coming to a gap in the architecture, a sizeable building razed to the ground, or burnt out. After all, the Luftwaffe sent four hundred planes over Britain and night after night in the winter of 1940-41. London Was the prize target. It’s so big that it couldn’t be missed. Yet it is also so big that all that damage affected only a fraction of the whole. It is, of/ course, to the centre of London through which the Thames runs, from Tower Bridge to Battersea Bridge, that visitors mostly come. Here is the City of London itself, the Bank of England. St. Paul’s, the Mansion House and all the great commercial offices. Here is Westminster, with the Houses of Parliament, the Abbey, St. Margaret’s, (Buckingham Palace, Westminster Cathedral and the Park. Here are the big shops, the theatres and the restaurants, where no one now can spend more Hian five shillings on food or take more than three courses, of which only one can be either meat or fish. This is v here the crowds throng. To your eves I expect these crowds, Whether they are hurrying on business, or strolling for pleasure during .thejr off-duty hours would seem a little shabby Cheerful, healthy, but shabby. You see, clothes rationing is very severe. Men’s suits have grown a little tired, a little shiny. And even the women! The summer frocks you see, are nearly all pre-war now, or at any rate were brought in the first year of the war. If your clothes coupons will barely stretch over sheer necessities, like shoes or utility stockings or underwear, you don’t waste any of them on thin frocks which can only be worn for part of the year. This has happened gradually and we have grown used to it But I daresay visitors would notice. For the matter of that desoite the sunshine, and the cheerfulness and (animation of tne crowd, London itself is looking a little shabby, i The bomb damage has been tidied up, but after four years of war most buildings stand in need of a coat of paint. And there are no new buildings .at all. except war factories, and the concrete pill boxes that were out up in 1940 when the danger- of invasion was intense and There are various ways of treating bomb damaged buildings. Many that have been flattened have had their basements converted into huge water tanks. The water is needed for fire-fighting, in the event of a resumed blitz. High walls and railings have had to be built round these tanks to keep the children out. They are dangerously deep and. as everyone under fifty is employed on war ‘ service it just isn’t possible to provide attendants. What does cheer up the aspect of these water tanks is an occasional flight of ducks or gulls, who settle on the surface. Other ruins are used for street fighting exercsies by the Home Guard. And many of them in the middle of summer .are brightened by tall growths of purple loosestrife, a common weed with a rather lovely flower. These haven’t been planted; the seeds have just blown into crannies in the brickwork. East of St. Paul’s is a huge flattened area. It opens a new vista of the City or London, which is much appreciated, and the National Fire Service re; centlv held a Bank Holiday sports meeting there. Again, in Oxford St. the bombed site of a big store is being used for an excellent Army Exhibition, which displays to the people of London the weapons, the trucks and tanks, the rations, the stores. the hospital equipment, everything that is used by a British division in action. o+ v,„~ In the afternoon, in fine weather at any rate, the streets in the middle of London are nearly, always crowded. A large proportion of tne men and women, of course, are in uniform, sailors, A.T.S. and W.A.A.F.S and W.R.N.S.. Dominion Service Men, Americans, Free French Czechs, Poles, Dutch, endless nationalities. But Quite a few civilians. You may ask where they get the time, if Britain is working .all out for the war effort. The answer 'isn’t difficult to find. Part of the crowds are people taking their brief annual holidays, usually a week, occasionally a fortnight, The government nolicy to save transnort is for holidays to be. spent at home. So those who live in or near London tend to come up to the West, End for a day. Others are working on night shifts, and their time offduty comes in the daylight The time to see London is at the rush hour in the morning, when the workers are coming in, by. train 01 bus or tram. Or in the evening when they are hurrying home. Then you 11 know- that London is hard at work, nh one thing I overlooked. We have grown used to it,. but I. think it would strike any visitor immediatelw Among all the London crowds the great majority of the civilians —and don’t forget they put on Home Guard or Civil Defence uniforms the evening and at week-ends are middle-aged or more than middlebed. Unless thev hanpen to be children. Practically all the young men and women are in the Navy the Army, or the Air Force. And London is nrnnd of them,.