THE CATHEDRALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 June 1943, Page 5

THE CATHEDRALS

TARGETS FOR BOMBS BEAUTY WAR DESTROYS “Fortresses Over Amiens.*’ “American Fliers Pound Rouen!” “R.A.F. Smashes Milan.” So go the headlines in daily succession, and anyone who has studied the cathedrals of Europe and the mellow and lovable cities which they centre must wince at each, says a writer in the "Christian Science Monitor.” But Americans and Britons and their allies-in-exile should take honest pride in the fact, now established beyond question, that United Nations bombardiers make every possible effort to avoid demolishing these architectural monuments. There have even been occasions when important military objectives have been spared lest a ' block-buster” hit a cathedral

The contrast between the German attitude toward English cathedrals and the United Nations attitude toward continental cathedrals has been the contrast between the Nazi spirit and the democratic spirit. The record is spread out for all free men to read and it cannt t be much altered by the cleverest tricks in Goebbels’s kit. The most' conspicuous case in point (though there are many others quite as definite) remains the case of Cologne and Canteibury. Cologne is a military objective of the first magnitude and as thousands recall from personal observation its famous cathedral is adjacent to some of the most obvious targets such as the main railway station and the great bridge across the Rhine. After last autumn's raid, by the R.A.F., photographs revealed that the cathedral remained intact—as did the adjoining station and the bridge. But the Nazis, crying that their famous cathedral city had been “desecrated.” promptly attacked Canterbury and wrought terrible damage to the cathedral of the “primate of all England.” Every educated German above the fanatical age of the Hitler Jugend must have known that Canterbury has about as much military importance as Oberammergau! If these words of mine should chance to reach the eyes of any American bombardiers whose duty it is to attack the cities of northern France, I beg that they will give an extra look through their precision bomb-sights before unloading destruction. I speak as one who spent a year studying, with affectionate admiration, the cathedral cities of France With the exception of some of the coastal cities (Boulogne, Dieppe Brest, Lorient. Saint-Nazaire) and a few of the industrial cities like Lille, almost every target you will be called upon to “blast” will be a true cathedral town which for centuries was the very centre of life for all who dwelt within leagues of it. Consider two examples headlined at the top of this article: Amiens, which you must attack because it is a vital rail centre for the Nazis, possesses the largest cathedral in France, one of the finest Gothic structures in all Europe. Clovis was crowned here and Peter thy Hermit preached the First Crusade here.

Rouen, another rail centre, is so teeming with great churches and immense historical associations that Frenchmen call it la ville complete. Rollo the Norman established his kingdom here; the heart of Richard the Lion-Hearted lies in the cathedral; Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on the Vieux Marche—and these are but three conspicuous examples from dozens of such associations. Architecturally Rouen, or what is left of it, is a standing museum of the past. The “Butter Tower” of Rouen’s cathedral has been the delight of artists for more than five centuries. The Tower of Rouen’s Church of Saint-Ouen is commonly called the “Crown of Normandy,” and has been the inspiration of a score of newer towers in Europe and America. The Bok Tower in Florida and the Harkness Tower of Yale University are the most familiar examples. You must interrupt me, fortress-flyers, to tune up your motors and be off, but sometime when you have a few minutes between flights let me tell you about Abbeville and Le Mans, about Bayeux and Coutances and William the Conqueror’s Caen and incomparable Chartres, where Nazi planes rise from a great airfield only a mile from the cathedral’s . . . vast repose, Silent and gray as forest-leagured cliff Left inland by the ocean’s slow retreat. These words are Lowell’s, Notre-Dame de is the treasure of France and of the world. Look well, bold bombardiers.