SAVAGE RAID

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23969, 20 May 1941, Page 9

SAVAGE RAID

ATTACK ON LONDON night of horror JOURNALISTS' STORIES HEROIC FIRK-FKJHTERS | SYDNEY, May r When the story of last night's great raic on London t'ornes to he written fully most glorious page will he tha 1 dealing with the work of the fire-fight ing services, which transcended evei lP more spectacular deeds of the night ; fighter pilots, eahlcd a special representative of the Sydney Mornitie jjernld in l.ondon on May 11. , ! flip firemen were braver than frontline shock troops.faring a hail of enemy filets. For hours areas in Londor burnffJ• From the top of a London city [juilding I saw the Luftwaffe's most deliberate atempt to set fire to London, to the accompaniment of one of the ; JiedTiest high-explosive raids the city has yet experienced. [ After the preliminary heavy bombs, the German aeroplanes rained down thousands qf incendiaries. They fell like grain from a seed drill as aeroplane after aeroplane laid them across the I city. In a moments the roof-tops a nd streets were brilliantly lit by chemiI cal flames 'iiifl the Hashes of high e.v | plosives. Roof and street fire-watchers, antI like attacked the incendiaries, but as 1. foon as they were put out more fell. | v Many exploded; others charred roof | materials. Soon many of the fires were out of the watchers' control and the 1 fire brigades were called in. Ringed With Fires | - Half an hour later dozens of fires started, and the building from which J was watching was soon ringed by fires. Great clouds of choking smoke hid the lull moon, and a blood-red glow lit up the city. Hoofs tell in and walls crashed down, while high-ex plosive bembs continued to thunder down, rock--1114 buildings. Still aeropianes continued to drop inI ceudiary bombs interspersed with highexplosive bombs. Millions of sparks shot up out of the flames, giving buildings the appearance of a hideous fairyland. When the all-clear sounded at dawn, sparks had been falling for many hours, setting further buildings 011 fire. Smoke clouds, rising thousands of feet, blanketed the sky. . I walked round the nearest fires. Pasgage along the streets was most difficult because of the rain of sparks. The pavementk were covered with cinders. Fire-fighters, who had been on duty for several hours and were tired, ■were carrying on. pouring millions of gallons of water into the flames. Great areas, containing historical buildings, .looked like infernos, and the heat was so intense that the firemen trere unable to approach to fight the ■fires. In narrow streets and lanes the fires threatened neighbouring buildings, but the firemen kept on directing jets of water against the blazes. ' Atmosphere ol Unreality The Germans apparently hurled most of their bombs into the fires, because there was not as much damage as I expected from the number of bombs I neard fall near by. One street was completely full of craters. Great slabs of concrete and road blocks had been ! hurled hundreds of yards. One large hrm\l) blew out every window for hundreds of yards around and threw up '* bvge beams to the roof. 1 saw some j warehouses which were cauldrons of | flame. "Firemen battled grimly with the 1 flames, which 'were destroying magnifi- \ cent structures. The heavy pall of smoke, tinged with red from the flames, I lent an atmosphere of unreality to the scene, at which even hardened "blitz" rictims were horrified. I toured London and talked with firemen and other Civil Defence workers. I saw buildings which I had read about in history books at school, and which I had since visited with affection, reduced to a mass of burning wreckage. Wreckage Litters Streets ; As I wrote the story, smoke clouded my room and cinders strewed the floor. Looking along one street 1 saw flames • leaping from the windows of beautiful .architectural monuments of Britain's past. There were continuous explosions as firemen wrecked burning buildings j to prevent the,spread of the flames and 'as time-bombs exploded. Hod-eyed, exhausted fire-fighters did their utmost to fight what Civil Defence workers described as a "fire plus high-explosive blitz." Firemen who have worked in London since the raids Began said to me: "Jerry in other raids concentrated either on high explosives or fire. This time he combined the two." The fires were so intense that Civil .Defence workers were forced to concentrate their whole attention on quelling the flames. The wreckage of buildings struck by high-explosive bombs littered the streets. "We'll Beat Him" | [ A fireman 1 met was hardly able to stand, but he refused my offer of help ' tft carry a ladder which was so heavy tiiat an average man would find difficulty in lifting it. "We have to carry on," he said. "Things are tough, but we'll beat hint." He went to the aid of comrades fighting a fire in a build- | <icjc which blazed fiercely and added dense clouds of flame-tinged smoke to the red haze hanging over the area, creatine a scene which might have been taken from Dante's Inferno. The blackened fire-fighters themselves looked like demons from the pit. I Ambulance bells clamoured as T picked my way over wreckage to a '"pub" for a drink for a group of weary £ firemen. I returned with a small flask of rum, for which the publican had refused payment. 1 received almost embarrassing' thanks from the firemen. The devotion to duty of these men was such thai it never occurred to them that they were worthy of a public tribute. After they had gulped a nip each, they returned to the job with almost •uperhuman energy. Experience in Suburbs Another member of the Sydney Morning Herald staff, who was visiting friends in a suburb, was caught there "when the raiders almost immediately •followed the alert. He stayed there about an hour and actually went to Bl p °p, in spile of the intensive gunfire : a 'id the noise uf the raiders and fighters i engines. I Shortly after midnight his agitated I . hostess, who already had taken refuge |.|| in an elaborate shelter, besought him I to follow her example. A "dug-out | night" followed, with frequent excur- \|. Rinns to the surface when fighters' 1 ttnrhine-guiN told of the "scrapping" ; overhead. Twice those in the shelter j heard what was apparently the sound of aeroplanes diving to earth out of :■> control. | Shrapnel and cartridge cases fell like ■ rain for several hours, though the dis- | was little affected by bombs. 1 Haulers droned overhead for hours, like j traffic on a busy highway, for the suburb j on the main route to London, j Soon a dull fire glow and a heavy | smoke pall could be discerned in the | direction of the city, and wood ashes | a,| d cinders began to drift on to the ■ ; P"een lawns. Sleep was impossible, so, 1 j r spite of the unseasonable cold, the H ouseholders watched for long' periods. | c i' l dressing gowns and slippers. sd' 1 s """ :,s 'he noise of one raider 1 OI, M awav. inother look up flic ominous , When his host drove the Herald j fTfosc'iitativc to London by car. the normally deserted on Sundays, '•; i ,„ er ° crowded with thousands of sight- : leers,