LONDON "TAKES IT"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27017, 28 February 1949, Page 5

LONDON "TAKES IT"

By Winston S. Churchill

Little or nothing had been done before the war or during the passive period to provide bombproof strongholds from which the central government could be carried on. Elaborate plans had been made to move the seat of government from London. But now under the bombardment the desire and resolve of the Government and of Parliament to remain in London was unmistakable, and I shared this feeling to the full. I, like others, had often pictured the destruction becoming so overpowering that a general move and dispersal would have to be made. But under the impact of the event all our reactions were in the contrary sense. On the line of sticking it out in London it was necessary to construct all kinds of strongholds under or above ground from which the executive, with its thousands of officials, could carry out their duties. A citadel for the War Cabinet had already been prepared near Hampstead, with offices, bedrooms and wire and fortified telephone communication. This was called “ Paddock.” On September 29, 1940, I prescribed a dress rehearsal, so that everybody should know what to do if it got too hot. “ 1 think it important that ‘ Paddock ’ should be broken in Thursday next, therefore, the Cabinet will meet there. At the same time, other departments should be encouraged to try a preliminary move of a skeleton staff. If possible, lunch should be provided for the Cabinet and those attending it.” We held a Cabinet meeting at the “ Paddock ” far from the light of day, and each Minister was requested to inspect and satisfy himself about his sleeping and working apartments. We celebrated *• this occasion by a vivacious luncheon and then returned to Whitehall. This was the only time the “ Paddock ” was ever used by Ministers. Over the War Room and offices in the basement of the annexe we floated-in six feet of steel and concrete, and made elaborate arrangements for ventilation, water supply, aftd, above all, telephones. As these offices were far below the level of the Thames, only 200 yards away, care had to be taken that those in them were not trapped by an inrush of water. Till now the hostile attack had been confined almost exclusively to highexplosive bombs; but with the full moon of October 15. when the heaviest attack of the month fell upon us, about 480 German aircraft dropped 386 tons of high explosive and in addition 70,000 incendiary bombs. Hitherto we had encouraged the Londoners to take cover, and every effort was being made to improve their protection. But now “ To the basements ” .must be replaced by “To the roofs.” It fell to the new Minister of Home Security to institute this policy. An organisation of fire-watchers and fire services on a gigantic scale and covering the whole of London (apart from measures taken in provincial cities) was rapidly brought into being. At first the firewatchers were volunteers; but the numbers required were so great, and the feeling that every man should take his turn upon the roster so strong, that fire-watching soon becajne compulsory. This form of service had a bracing and buoyant effect upon all plaocpc Sufferings of London I was glad that, if any of our cities were to be attacked, the brunt should fall on London. London was like some huge prehistoric animal, capable of enduring terrible injuries, mangled and bleeding from many wounds, and yet preserving its life and movement. The Anderson shelters were widespread in the working-class districts of twostorey houses, and everything was done to make them habitable and to drain them in wet weather. Later the Morrison shelter was developed, which was no more than a heavy kitchen table made of steel with strong wire sides, capable of holding up the ruins of a small house and thus giving a measure of protection. Many owed their lives to it. For the rest,London could take it.” They took all they got. and could have taken more. Indeed, at this time we saw no end but the demolition of the whole metropolis. Still, as I pointed out to the House of Commons at the time, the law of diminishing returns operates in the case of the demolition of large cities. Soon many of the bombs would only fall upon houses already ruined and only make the rubble jump. Over large areas there would be nothing more to burn or destroy, and yet human beings might make their homes here and there, and carry on their work with infinite resource and fortitude. At this time anyone would have been proud to be a Londoner. The admiration of the whole country was given to London, and all the other great cities in the land braced themselves to take their hit as and when it came and not to be outdone. Indeed, many persons seemed envious of London’s distinction, and quite a number came up from the country in order to spend a night or two in town, share the task, and “see the fun.” We had to check this tendency for administrative. reasons.

As we could see no reason why the hostile bombing of London should not go on throughout the war, it was necessary to make long-term plans for safely housing the central Government machine. Lord, Beaverbrook was entrusted with the task of making a large number of bomb-proof strongholds capable of housing the whole essential staffs of many departments of State, and a dozen of them, several connected by tunnels, survive in London to-day. None of these was finished till long after the aeroplane raids were over, and few were used during the pilotless aircraft and rocket attacks which came in 1944 and 1945. Towards the middle of October Josiah WedgwCod began to make a fuss in Parliament about my not having an absolutely bomb-proof shelter for the night raids. He was an old friend of mine. His brother was the chairman of the Railway Executive Committee. Before the war they had had the foresight to construct a considerable underground office in Piccadilly. It was 70 feet below the surface and covered with strong, high buildings. Although one bomb had penetrated 80 feet in marshy subsoil, there was no doubt this depth with buildings overhead gave safety to anyone in it. I began to be pressed from all sides to resort to this shelter for sleeping purposes. Eventually I agreed, and from the middle of October till the end of the year I used to go there once the firing had started, to transact my evening business and sleep undisturbed. One felt a natural compunction at having much more safety than most other people; but so many pressed me that I let them have thenway. After about 40 nights in the railway shelter the Annexe became stronger, and I moved back to it. Here during the rest of the war my wife and I lived comfortably. We felt confidence in this solid stone building, and only on very rare occasions went down below the armour. My wife even hung up our few pictures in the sitting room which I had thought it better to keep bare. Her view prevailed and was justified by the event. From the roof near the cupola of the Annexe there was a splendid view of London on clear nights. They made a place'for me with light overhead cover from splinters, and one could walk in the moonlight and watch the fireworks. In 1941 I used to take some of my American visitors up here from time to time after dinner. They were always most interested. On the night of November 3, for the first time in nearly two months, no alarm sounded in London. The silence seemed quite odd to many. They wondered what was wrong. On the following night the enemy’s attacks were widely dispersed throughout the Island: and this continued for a while. There had been another change in the policy of the German offensive. Although London was still regarded as the principal target, a major effort was now to be'made to cripple the industrial centres of Britain. The Attack Switches These new bombing tactics began with the blitz on Coventry on the night of November 14. On the whole, this was the most devastating, raid

Heroism of Population

which we sustained. The centre of Coventry was shattered, and its life for a spell completely disrupted. Four hundred people were killed and many more seriously injured. The German radio proclaimed that our other cities would be similarly “ Coventrated.” Nevertheless the all-important aeroengine and machine-tool factories were not brought to a standstill, nor was the copulation, hitherto untried in the ordeal of bombing, put out of action. On November 15 the enemy switched back to London with a very heavy raid in full moonlight. Thd next target was Birmingham, and three successive raids from November 19 to 22 inflicted much destruction and loss of life. When I visited the city a day or two later to inspect its factories and see for myself what had happened, an incident, to me charming, occurred. It was the dining hour and a very pretty young girl ran up to the car and threw a box of cigars into it. I stopped at once and she said, “ I won the prize this week for the highest output. I only heard you were coming an hour ago.” Hie gift must have cost her two or three pounds. I was very glad (in my official capacity) to give her a kiss. I then went on to see the long mass grave in which so many citizens and their children had beer, newly buried. The spirit of Birmingham shone brightly, and its million inhabitants, highly organised, conscious and comprehending, rode, high above their physical suffering. During the last week of November and the beginning of December the weight of the attack shifted to the ports. It did not matter wheye the blow s'truck, the nation was as sound as the sea is salt. The climax raid of these weeks came once more to London on Sunday, December 29. All the painfully gathered German experience was expressed on .this occasion. It was an incendiary classic. The weight of the attack was concentrated upon the City of London itself. It was timed to meet the dead-low-water hour. The water mains were broken at the outset by very heavy high-explosive parachute-mines. Nearly 1500 fires had to be fought. The damage to railway stations and docks was serious. Eight Wren churches were destroyed or damaged. The Guildhall was smitten by fire and blast, and St. Paul’s Cathedral was only saved by heroic exertions. A void of ruin at the very centre of the British world gapes upon us to this day. But when the King and Queen visited the scene they were received with enthusiasm far exceeding any Royal festival.

During this prolonged ordeal, of which several months were still to come, the King was constantly at Buckingham Palace. Proper shelters were being constructed in the basement, but all this took time. Also it happened several times that his Majesty arrived from Windsor in the middle of an air-raid. Once he and the Queen had a very narrow escape. I have his Majesty’s permission to re-, cord the incident in his own words; “We went to London [from Windsor] and found an air-raid in progress. The day was very cloudy and it was raining hard. The Queen and I went upstairs to a small sitting room overlooking the Quadrangle (I could not use my usual sitting room owing to the broken windows by former bomb damage). “All of a sudden we heard the zooming noise of a diving aircraft getting louder and louder, and then saw two bombs falling past the opposite side of Buckingham Palace into the Quadrangle We saw the flashes,and heard the detonations as they burst about 80 yards away. The blast blew in the windows opposite to us, and two great craters had appeared in the Quadrangle. From one of these craters water was pouring out and flowing into the passage through the broken windows. The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds, and we were very quickly out into the passage. There were six bombs: two in the Forecourt, two in the Quadrangle, one wrecked the Chapel, and one in the garden.” Example of Royalty The King, who as a sub-lieutenant had served in the battle of Jutland, was exhilarated by all this, and pleased that he should be sharing the dangers of his subjects in the capital. I must confess that at the time neither I nor any of my colleagues were aware of the peril of this particular incident. Had the windows been closed instead of open the whole of the glass would have splintered ilito the faces of the King and Queen, causing terrible injuries. So little did they make of it all that even I who saw them and their entourage so frequently, only realised long afterwards when making inquiries for writing this book what had actually happened. _ ... In those days we viewed with stern and tranquil gaze the idea ofgoing down fighting amid the ruins of Whitehall His Majesty had a shooting range made in the Buckingham Palace garden, at which he and other members of his family and his equerries practised assiduously with pistols and tommy-guns. Presently I brought the King an American short-range carbipe, from a number which had been sent to me This was a very good weapon. About this time the King changed his practice of receiving me in a formal weekly audience at about 5 o’clock, which had prevailed during mv first two months of office. It was now arranged that I should lunch with him every Tuesday. This was certainly a very agreeable method of transacting State business, and sometimes the Queen was present. On several occasions we all had to take our plates and glasses in our hands and go down to the shelter, which was making progress, to finish our meal. The weekly luncheons became a regular institution. After the first few months his Majesty decided that all servants should be excluded, and that we should help ourselves and help each other. During the four and a-half years that this continued I became aware of the extraordinary diligence with which the King read all the telegrams and public documents submitted to him. Under the British Constitutional system, the Sovereign has a right to be made acquainted with everything for which his Ministers are responsible, and has an unlimited right of giving counsel to his Government. I was most careful that everything should be laid before the King, and at our weekly meetings he frequently showed that he had mastered papers which I had not yet dealt with. It was a great help to Britain to have so good a King and Queen in those fateful years, and as a convinced upholder of constitutional monarchy I valued as a signal honour the gracious intimacy with which I, as first Minister, was treated, for which I suppose there has been no precedent since the days of Queen Anne and Marlborough during his years of power. This brings us to the end of the year, and for the sake of continuity I have gone ahead of the general war. The reader will realise that all this clatter and storm was but an accom.paniment to the cool processes by which our war effort was maintained and our policy and diplomacy conducted. Indeed, I must record that at the summit these injuries, failing to be mortal, were a positive stimulant to clarity of view, faithful comradeship, and judicious action. It would be unwise. however, to suppose that if the attack had been 10 or 20 times as severe—or even perhaps two or three times as severe—the healthy reactions I have described would have followed. [Copyright 1949 in USA by the New<York Times Company and Time (Inc.) (publisher of Time and Life); in the British Empire by the Daily Telegraph, Ltd.; elsewhere by International Co-operation Press Service (Inc.). World rights reserved Reproduction in full or in part in any language strictly prohibited.] The secret war waged by British science is the subject of Tuesday’s instalment.