DELIBERATELY PLANNED

Evening Star, Issue 23682, 16 September 1940, Page 3

DELIBERATELY PLANNED

HOPED TO DRIVE KING FROM CAPITAL CALCULATED POLICY OF BERLIN BARBARIANS Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 14. The ‘ Daily Mail,’ in a leader, says the bombing of the palace was obviously carried out under orders. The Germans planned to capture Queen Wilhelmina, and tried to murder King Haakon from the air. Such attempts to assassinate the heads of States were a part of the calculated policy of Berlin’s barbarians. The first stage of this spiritual offensive against the British people is to drive the King from his capital, but such victory is denied them. The bombing, in the King’s own words, “ only strengthens the resolution of all ■of us to fight through to final victory.” JOURNALISTS VISIT SCENE. Press representatives were invited to the palace, and saw the evidence of yesterday’s deliberate attack on their Majesties and their homo. The German pilot, who dived through a balloon barrage, released six bombs from a height of I,oooft, but failed by a miracle to bring murder and devastation to the palace. Apart from the bombs which directly hit the Royal Ghapel, the damage resulting from this cold-blooded assault was less than that which a time bomb caused earlier in the week, but three bombs which landed in the quadrangle missed the palace proper by inches. If they had landed a few feet to either the right or the left Buckingham Palace would have been mostly ruins to-day. AN UGLY CRATER. Tho representative of the Associated Press saw torn metal railings fronting the' Mall and an ugly crater in the quadrangle. He says: “At least 100 windows were shattered around the court. One bomb made a large hole. The south-west corner, through which countless debutantes have filed, re eeived the full blast of the bomb, and looked more like a cloister than a corridor, hut among the priceless paintings covering almost every inch of the walls I found only ono badly torn, namely, the portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge, by an early Victorian German artist. A strangely ugly portrait of the Tsar of Russia, which Edward the Seventh described as ‘ a portrait thrown on a landscape,’ was directly in the path of one explosion, but was not harmed. Some of _ the other canvases were spattered with dirt and rubble from the quadrangle. There were three casualties among workmen sheltering under the chapel, which, it is considered, is beyond repair. A bomb dropped neatly through the roof. It left the walls standing, hut completely wrecked the floor and the altar, together with all the priceles sacred emblems and furnishings, on which crashed a ghastly heap of masonry.” CROSS BURIED IN DEBRIS. Priceless Gobelin tapestry depicting the baptism of John tho Baptist still hangs unharmed on the wall over where the altar stood in tho wrecked chapel at Buckingham Palace. This morning sunshine flooded into the crater below where the force of the explosion shattered the stout outer wall and revealed a tangled litter of almost unrecognisable ruins. Hidden away in the debris is a famous mother of pearl cross which stood on the altar, but a Bible which Queen Victoria presented to the chapel, and in the back of which is a record of all the births of the members of the Royal Family since its presentation, was picked up completely undamaged. The lectern on which the Bible rested could not, however, he found. Tho King’s dolour of tho 3rd Scots Guards, on its standard attached to a cream and gold pillar, also stands undamaged among the ruins, but the_ regimental Colour, which stood beside it, is buried in a pile of rubble. In the gallery the King’s pew is undamaged. The superintendent of the palace, describing the attack, said : “ We heard a terrific rushing noise, and saw the plane come down out of the clouds to about I,oooft. It appeared to be -divebombing through the balloon barrage, and seemed to be making a direct attack on the palace.” i In Rome ‘ Jl Telegrafo ’ stated that the bombing of Buckingham Palace was probably a reprisal for the bombing of Hitler’s Chancellery. INDIAN SIKH LEADER GO-OPERATION WITH BRITAIN URGED LAHORE, September 14. The veteran Sikh leader, Taran Singh, offered to raise 100,000 recruits in the event of Congress reaching an agreement. He. also sent a letter to Mr Gandhi and Congress urging Congress to co-operato with Britain owing to the dangers to India if Britain is defeated.