DAMAGED BY BLAST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 120, 24 May 1941, Page 10

DAMAGED BY BLAST

NEW ZEALAND HOUSE ALL FRONT WINDOWS OLT BITLDING STILL STANDS. London. April 21. Every window at the front, of New Zealand House, looking out on to th*’* Strand, was smashed during a big rajd on London in April. Blast caused breakages ins’de the building and scattered desks, tables, and bookcases, and panels were burst out of doors. There was no structural damage to lhe building. and. none of the fire-watching picket was injured. Soot poured down the chimneys after a terrific explosion in the Strand, and gushed out on to the floors of the office. Dust was showered everywhere. The staff spent almost the entire following day cleaning up the dirt and debris. The women tied scarves, towels, and handkerchiefs round their heads and became impromptu charwomen for a day, and the men took off their coats and rolled up their sleeves. Six New Zealand naval ratings on leave, who arrived to collect their mail, remained to work all day, and N.Z.E.F. men from the New Zealand forces Club joined in. By late afternoon. the litter had been cleaned up. and the staff returned to Vork. Gapirg windows and doors and shattered partitions made unusual working commons. Rain of Incendaries. he explosion occurred about an hour before the raid ended, and it was preceded by a rain of about thirty incendiary bombs, most of which fell in the Strand and missed New Zealand v ouse. These fire bombs were quickput out. and the only two women sent. Miss Ruth Heath, secretary to R. M. Campbell, Official Secretary the High Commissioner, together th the caretaker’s wife, filled san : ckets in the basement while the mer: ished them upstairs. After the explosion, all the light had to be put out as the blast ha<l ripped away the black-out screens and curtains. The fire-watchers made themselves some tea in the basement, and were obliged to wait for the “raiders passed” sirens before taking s ~ck of the damage. Private L. A. Bailey (Okaiawa), who is in charge o f the fire-watching pick of six, said:—

“It was easily the worst night we’ve h.id in the Strand during my six months at this work. As soon as the alarm went I went up to the roof. 1 could hear planes all the time, and a number of fires sprang up. About midnight flares were dropped, but they were some distance away. Some time later others came down right o er the Strand.

“I woke up the picket—they were in the shelter in the basement—and we went outside and stood chatting to a p diceman. Soon we heard a Nazi a >ove. and then about 30 incendiaries fell. Most of them were in the street, and we soon out. Then we stood outside again. Pretty soon we had a good indication that something was coming down, and that it was . >ing to be a pretty big one. “The Thing Landed.’’ •‘So we dashed inside, and we d only st got in when the thing landed and nade the biggest row I’ve ever heard n my life. It got a building on the opposite side of the road. After we’d seen that there were no fires about, there was nothing we could do until the all-clear.” Another member of the fire picket was Mr. C. A. Bunn, assistant finance officer, who has been sleeping at New Zealand House since his house was bombed and his family evacuated. “The force of the explosion made me reel a bit.” he said, “but I managed to keep my feet. I’ve never seen so much dust in a building before in my life as the cloud that poured all

over the place. It was just like a small dust storm." An amazing sight greeted the staff when they arrived for work. The shutters that screen the great front windows facing the Strand were blown in. and the floors were littered with broken glass, wood splinters, and debris. Any thought of work was impossible until the wreckage and dirt had been cleaned away. The entire staff set to work in the greatest good humour, and by late afternoon New Zealand House, though decidedly abnormal in appearance, was tidy once again. Windows open to the Strand brought in the steady rumble of the traffic, and draughts swept the rooms, but this was minor discomfort to the scene opposite. There, the premises of the Halifax Building Society were completely gutted and the equipment in every office was lost. In the words of Mr. W. J. Jordan, the High Commissioner, New Zealand House, like London, is now "scarred but not scared.”